Bucki, Peter, Rev.
(Feb. 28, 1912 - Oct. 21, 1996)
Franciscan Friar

Throughout its history St Michael the Archangel R.C. Church in Bridgeport, Connecticut, where Peter Bucki was baptized and eulogized upon his death, had bad luck. The priest who started the Polish parish was still in his thirties when he died in 1907. Because he could not find a Polish priest to meet the religious needs of the parishioners, Bishop Michael Tierney of Hartford gave the jurisdiction of St. Michael the Archangel parish to the Franciscan fathers. Friars would come and go out of Bridgeport without seeking the approval of the parishioners. Eventually it led to a schism, with Franciscans controlling one block of Polish families and an independent group, under the aegis of Bishop Francis Hodur of Scranton, Pennsylvania, the other block. Exactly when John and Mary Bucki joined St. Michael's parish is not known.

When their son, Peter, was born, St. Michael's stood on Sterling Street, (later renamed Pulaski Street), and the ringing of the church bell reminded Bridgeport, which in 1920 had more than 2,000 persons from Poland, of its existence. The other Polish church was closer to Long Island Sound than to the Polish immigrants. After growing up in Bridgeport, Peter Bucki entered the novitiate at St. Joseph Cupertino in Ellicott City, Md., and was ordained at St. Hyacinth's Seminary in Granby, Mass., by the bishop of Hartford. He undertook postgraduate studies in theology at the Catholic University of America.

He was an assistant pastor at Our Lady of Perpetual Help in New Bedford, Mass., and St. Stanislaus Church in Chicopee, Mass., in 1940-44; instructor at St. Hyacinth's Seminary in 1944-48 and 1949-60; and at St. Anthony-on Hudson in Rensselaer, N.Y.

During the 1960s and '70s he worked in the General Curia of Order in Rome, Italy and was a guide at the St. Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi in Italy.

When he returned to his native land, the Order of Friars Minor sent him in turn to Ellicott City and the St. Lawrence Friary in Becket, Mass., in the late 197Os. After that he was pastor of St. Louis parish in Portland, Maine, St. Stanislaus in Trenton, N.J., and parochial vicar at St. Stanislaus in Chicopee.

The last eight years of his life were spent in New Britain, Ct., where he provided ministerial assistance at Monsignor Bojnowski Home and waited for death. The Franciscan friars at St. Michael's in Bridgeport arranged his Funeral Mass and buried him in the parish cemetery.

From: Edward Pinkowski (2009)