Did you ever walk into a gorgeous environment and fail to notice the beauty, history, and culture that experience might bring you? It happened to me a couple of weeks ago. In my 70 short years of life, I have experienced the interior of St. Adalbert Church hundreds of times, but I never took the time to really grasp its treasures.

The burnished green copper spires and roof of St. Adalbert (Allegheny Avenue and Thompson Street) pinpoint the location of Port Richmond’s Church Alley — along with Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Church (Allegheny Avenue and Belgrade Street) and Our Lady Help of Christians Church (Allegheny Avenue and Gaul Street) — on the horizon, just like the towers of Center City identify its location. The stately granite building blocks of the church are perfectly complemented by the stained glass windows of the church’s interior. And for me, my friends, the stained glass is where the genuine beauty of the church lies.

History tells us that Mieczyslaw Monkiewicz, the founding pastor of St. Adalbert, traveled to Quedlinberg, Germany, in 1911. There he directed the efforts of stained glass artist Ferdinand Muller in creating more than 50 windows that encase St. Adalbert in a rainbow of color that is historical, biblical, and nationalistic in its own way.

The windows frame the unique marble, gold leaf, and murals of the interior walls. The 35-foot hand-carved wood altar of the sanctuary stands more glorious as it is brought to life by the dazzling stained glass colors of the four evangelists who fashioned the New Testament of Christianity. The individuals depicted on the stained glass are given their Polish names.

Swiety Mateusz (St. Matthew) appears seated at his writing table with God above inspiring his efforts. An angel kneeling at the bottom provides an atmosphere of contentment and protection. An hourglass on the table symbolically communicates the universality of time that Matthew’s document has achieved in the present and past and will achieve in the future.

Swiety Marek (St. Mark) is depicted blessing another apostle as the eye of providence is encased by a triangle symbolic of the Holy Trinity and the all-seeing eye of God. A lion with wings suggests courage.

Swiety Lukasz (St. Luke), attired in a red robe, sits at an easel and paints the Madonna and child who both graciously pose for his effort. The winged ox suggests sacrifice, strength and courage.

Swiety Jan (St. John) kneels in adoration at the foot of God. He is surrounded by six lit candles suggesting the wisdom that is being imparted by God, who holds a book of Scripture. At the lower portion of the window an eagle suggests God’s power and majesty.

The nave of the Church contains ten windows, five on each side of the church, narrative in nature, that reflect the history of Polish saints, two of which pay homage to the Blessed Virgin Mary. The detail of these windows is exquisite.

On the Thompson Street side (west), St. Adalbert, Bishop of Prague, for whom the church is named, and his companions, Gaudentius and Benedict, are shown being martyred in East Prussia by enemies who charge them as Polish spies.

Matka Boska Rozancowa (Our Lady of the Rosary), holding the child Jesus, is held in reverence by a tonsured monk, St. Dominic, founder of the Dominican order of preachers who receives a rosary from Mary. A dog at his feet holding a lighted torch emphasizes that the Dominicans were watchdogs for the Lord against heresy.

Swiety Michal (St. Michael) the Archangel, dressed in golden armor, slays the devil that lies in hellfire.

Swiety Stanislaw (St. Stanislaus) of Krakow BM (bishop and martyr), pictured holding a scepter indicative of his rank, blesses a man wrapped in grave clothes. Stanislaw is cleared of Polish King Boleslaw’s charge that the church incorporated land without paying compensation when the deceased land owner appears to testify to Stanislaw’s innocence.

Swiety Kazimierz (St. Casmir) kneels and prays before a crucifix on an altar; he points to a crown and scepter ensconced on a pillow in front of him indicating that his first duty is to God. A suit of gold armor bearing the Polish eagle hangs behind him.

On the Edgemont Street side (east) of the church, a large window depicts the people and King of Poland kneeling in adoration to the Polish Black Madonna, Our Lady of Chestochowa.

Swiety Jacek (St. Hyacinth) is depicted in white robes, being transported on water by a turtle, rescuing a statue of the Virgin and a ciborium containing the viaticum from a burning church that has been ravaged by the Hun.

Swiety Stanislaw Kostka (St. Stanislaus Kostka), dressed in a black robe, kneels and receives communion from two angels, as the Blessed Virgin intercedes against a homeowner who refused to allow a priest with the Blessed Sacrament to enter the house.

Najsw. P. Marya z Lourdes (Our Lady of Lourdes), a girl dressed in Polish garb, kneels before the Blessed Virgin at Lourdes who stands among roses. The healing waters of Lourdes appear in the lower right corner of the frame.

Swiety Wincenty a Paolo (St. Vincent de Paul) holds a child’s hand as a woman holding another child kneels before him. A Spanish style mission appears in the background.

The front doors of the Church update Polish narrative history into the 20th century with depictions of Philadelphia’s John Cardinal Krol, the peace efforts of Pope John Paul II, the Polish independence movement Solidarnosc (Solidarity), Maximillian Kolbe, canonized 20th century saint, and the Polish American String Band. The doors were installed in 1983 by the Baut Studios Inc. of Swoyersville, Pennsylvania, and add a local flavor to the church.

St. Adalbert Church is open daily for worship beyond the Mass schedule. I found the church’s administrator, Reverend Tadeusz Gorki, to be very accommodating and knowledgeable with respect to the church’s history and its treasures.•

Fred Cimino is the unofficial historian of Port Richmond; his latest book, a novel, In These Streets: a Port Richmond Summer, is available at the Port Richmond Bookstore, 3037 Richmond Street. He has written seven books about the culture, history, and customs and traditions of Port Richmond