Pyplacz (Pyplatz), Rev. Michael
Clergyman. In 1884 came to U.S. and was pastor of St. Adalbert's parish, Chicago, Ill. Deceased.

From: "Who's Who in Polish America" by Rev. Francis Bolek, Editor-in-Chief; Harbinger House, New York, 1943

PYPLACZ, REV. MICHAEL

No one knows whether the Rev. Michael Pyplacz, whose last name was spelled Pyplatz by the Germans, came to Chicago in the spring of 1884 to labor as a diocesan priest or in the Resurrection congregation. On June 14, 1884, he wrote to the General of the Resurrection Fathers in Rome, the Rev. Piotr Semenenko, to thank him for sending him to Chicago, and to complain that the Rev. Wincenty Barzynski, C. R., pastor of St. Stanislaus Kostka parish in Chicago, worked him to death, often past midnight, in confession booths. Soon after Archbishop Patrick A. Feehan took him away from the first Polish parish in Chicago. Did Father Barzynski usurp Father Pyplacz's services?

Born Michal Kolumban Pyplatz in Brzeczkowice, Opole County, in Upper Silesia, on September 28, 1851, he wanted to grow up and become a priest. After completing his education in Upper Silesia, he was unable for one reason or another to go to a seminary and was forced, in order to help the family, to go to work in a printing shop. Eventually he succeeded in his goal, studying for the priesthood in various places, including Cieszyn and Vienna, and in 1877 he was ordained by Bishop Antoni Galecki in Krak—w. Very soon after he emigrated to Italy and lived in seclusion for several years when the Archbishop of Chicago sent a plea to Rome for more priests.

In 1884, two years after the parish was organized, Father Pyplacz was the second pastor of Immaculate Conception Catholic Church, on the corner of Commercial Avenue and 88th St., 12 miles from the Bishop's residence. Within the first year of the parish, the church, which had at one time been a store, was destroyed by fire. The second edifice, built in the second year of the parish, left the new pastor with a $24,000 debt. Without waiting for the money to come in, he divided part of the church basement into three classrooms and arranged with the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word from Houston, Texas, to open a school in the basement. The enrollment grew so fast that he turned the entire basement into classrooms. At the same time, he paid off the debt, bought rich stations of the cross and and other ornaments, and made the fourth oldest Polish parish the talk of Chicago.

So high was the appreciation in which he was held by the Archbishop that he was transferred to a newer Polish parish. St. Joseph's, at 48th and Paulina Streets, near the Chicago stock yards, on south side of Chicago. Because the frame church was too small to hold the growing Polish parish, he figured out a way to build a new church on a pay as you go plan. In 1895, he hired L. Lewandowski to design a new church, and the architect, whose last name was the same as 438 persons in the 1900 census of Chicago, gave him the blueprint of a church in stone and pressed brick, 162 by 77 feet, with a 175-foot high steeple. The parish then set a time for contractors to submit their bids. In the pay-as-you-go plan, although the church would cost $90,000, the parish set aside $26,000 for the foundation and main floor. The contractor who won the job was M. Koska. Discord followed. Max Kucharczyk, the parish organist, and contractors, whose bids were rejected, led the fight against the church administration. Father Pyplacz, Koska, and others fought back. The charges, false and real, were aired out in the English and Polish press. Truth prevailed. On October 6, 1895, the church, or the basement and main floor, was dedicated. The rest of the church was completed when the parish had the money.

Father Pyplacz remained as pastor for only a short time. As the parish grew, his responsibilities increased enormously. The number of children in the parish school jumped from 419 in 1895 to 710 in 1903. The church and school were enlarged. The same year that Father Pyplacz built the rectory at 4821 S. Hermitage Avenue, he remodeled the old rectory as a convent for the Felician Sisters who taught in the school. He labored under great odds during the growth of his congregation until it was divided in 1906.

By the time Father Pyplacz reached his sixties the hard feelings in the parish over church matters had not faded. After he took a leave of absence in 1908, the younger parishioners fell in love with Father Louis Grudzinski, a young priest who filled in for him, and protested when Father Pyplacz returned to his residence at 4821 South Hermitage Avenue. The Archbishop transferred Father Grudzinski to another parish on February 18, 1909, but Father Pyplacz could not give the parish the attention it deserved. He resigned and remained in seclusion, as he did in Italy, and died in Chicago on April 9, 1920.

Author: Edward Pinkowski