St. Adalbert Catholic Cemetery & Mausoleums

Consecrated in 1872, St. Adalbert Cemetery is named after the tenth century Bishop of Prague, a Czech saint who was martyred during his missionary efforts to convert the Baltic Prussians. He is the patron saint of Poland, Bohemia, Hungary, and Prussia.

Prior to the development of St. Adalbert, eleven local Catholic parishes had their own designated burial sections. Once St. Adalbert was established, it took over the individual “parish cemetery” sections from the following parishes: St. Hyacinth, St. Stanislaus, St. Adalbert, St. John, St. Procopius, St. Josaphat, St. Vitus, St. Mary, St. Wenceslaus, St. Hedwigs, and Holy Family.

Pastors at Bohemian and Polish parishes in Chicago, unable to support dedicated cemeteries for their own individual parishes, joined together in April 1872 to plan a shared cemetery to serve the Ethnic-Slavic Catholic community.

In October 1872, Father Adolph Baranowski (Congregation of the Resurrection), pastor of the first and largest Catholic parish, St. Stanislaus Kostka and Father Joseph Molitor, pastor of St. Wenceslaus Bohemian Parish joined together to purchase the original 12-acre plot of land that would become St. Adalbert Cemetery.

Over the years, the original cemetery has increased from its initial size of twelve acres to its present size of 250 acres. Presently, St. Adalbert has over 336,000 interments (12/31/22).

These Sacred Grounds contain beautiful and unique artwork, statuary and architeture throughout. Points of interest within the Cemetery include Shrines of St. Joseph, Immaculate Conception, Angel Gabriel, St. Francis of Assisi, St. Maximilian Kolbe, Holy Innocents, Veterans, Mary Mother of God Garden Crypts, and Katyn Memorial.

St. Adalbert oversees the operation of Norwood Park Cemetery.