About St. Margaret Mary Parish

Saint Margaret Mary Catholic Church and Parish is located in the southeastern part of McHenry County Illinois. It is a Franciscan parish served by friars from St. Anthony of Padua and B. James of Strepa Province in Krakow, Poland. It is located within the Rockford Illinois Diocese on the Fox River and is in a collar county of Chicago. The Parish has approximately 3,500 registered families with a Catholic Elementary School from preschool 3 years old until 8th grade and is served by Marian Central Catholic High School in Woodstock. It has a strong Religious Education Program for children attending public schools from age 3 to grade 5; a Junior High Youth Ministry Program which includes Religious Education Faith Groups, Retreats, Socials, Service Projects and lots of Fun; and a High School Youth Ministry Program which includes Religious Education Growth Groups, Retreats, Socials, Youth Masses, Large Group Speakers, Service Projects, Interaction with Neighboring Youth Groups. Finally it also has a Young Adult Group and Adult Enrichment Programs.

Within the Parish, there is also a Polish Community which celebrates two weekly Masses and offers the Sacraments in the Polish Language. In addition, there is a Filipino Community which celebrates devotions and the Simbang Gabi Christmas Celebrations.

Throughout the year, all our ethnic groups come together for multi-lingual masses and celebrations.

Parish Campus Map

Our Parish Campus consists of many different buildings and facilities designed to serve the needs of the faithful at St. Margaret Mary. Our Church and Parish Offices (which include our Business and Liturgical Offices) run from the west along Algonquin Rd. to our Ministry Center, which includes McDonnell Hall, and then our Parish School bounded by Eastgate Dr. on the east side of our campus. In between we have our Friary (Priest’s Residence), our Walking Together Resale Shop, McGivney Hall (Knights of Columbus Building and Parish Storage). There is also a playground and athletic fields south of the school. Please click below for a PDF of our full Parish Campus Map.

About Our Patroness

Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque, Virgin (1690) Feast Day: October 16th

Margaret was born on July 22, 1647 in Burgundy (France). Her father was a notary and judge. He died when Margaret was about 8 years old. She was first sent to the convent school of the Poor Clares in Charolles. However, a serious illness forced her to return home. At the family home, her father’s relatives had moved in and taken over the direction of the farm and household. The relatives regulated all her and her mother’s comings and goings making them prisoners in their own home. Margaret would spend much of her time outdoors to escape the difficult situation. There she spent her time in prayer and fasting, and fostered a devotion to the Blessed Sacrament.

Margaret’s mother had hoped she would marry, but at the age of twenty, inspired by a vision, she put aside all such thoughts. She was not attracted to the world, but she felt a great hunger for God. So at the age of 24, she made her profession at the convent of the Visitation at Paray-le-Monial. Margaret Mary received her religious habit on August 25, 1671. She began to have revelations from Christ showing His Sacred Heart on fire with love for his people. The first of these occurred on December 27, 1673.

The Lord told her that the love of His heart must spread and manifest itself to men, and He would reveal its graces through her. Above all, she was directed to receive Him in Holy Communion on the first Friday of the month, and every night from Thursday to Friday, to participate in His passion and death in the hour between 11 pm and midnight: “You will fall on your face and spend one hour with Me. You will call on God’s mercy to ask forgiveness for sinners and you will try to sweeten at least a little bit the bitterness I have experienced.”

For many years no one believed Margaret Mary’s visions, and she suffered from despair and also from the slights and contempt of those around her. In 1683, opposition in the community ended after an account of Margaret Mary’s visions was read aloud from the writings left by Father Claude, who had taken it upon himself to make known to the world the nun’s remarkable experiences. Today, the devotion to the Sacred Heart is celebrated on the Friday after the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ in June.

Margaret died on October 17, 1690 ate the age of 43. As she received the Last Sacraments, she said, “I need nothing but God, and to lose myself in the heart of Jesus.” She was beatified by Pope Pius IX (1864) and canonized by Pope Benedict XV in 1920. The cult of the Sacred Heart of Jesus was officially recognized in 1765 by Pope Clement XIII. Her feast day is observed on October 16th.

Our Sanctuary: The Meaning of the Cross of San Damiano

St. Margaret Mary is blessed to have a replica of the famed Cross of San Damiano hanging within our sanctuary (pictured at right). Have you every wondered what all of the images mean and the significance of the cross itself? The original cross was fashioned around the year 1100 and hangs in Santa Chiara Church in Assisi. When in 1257, the Poor Clares moved to Sanata Chiara, they took the original San Damiano Cross with them and still guard it with great reverence.

The History of St. Margaret Mary Parish

Saint Margaret Mary Parish in Algonquin is one of the oldest settlements along the Fox River in McHenry County, with missionaries conducting Catholic services as early as 1845. Father Joseph M. Lonergan, founder of several parishes, including SS. Peter and Paul at Cary, organized Saint Margaret Mary Parish in 1915. The faith community inquired about property to build a church and Father bought the land along the banks of the Fox River just below the dam by the creek (Harrison between Water) from Mrs. F. J. Kelahan in 1914 for a nominal price. The Church was a “Greek Revival” edifice build of brick. The cornerstone was laid on July 11, 1915. Nearly three thousand people attended ceremony, of whom about one-half were Chicago friends and patrons of the Parish. The Bohemian Catholic Societies, Knights of Columbus and the Ladies’ Auxiliaries had charge of the celebration. The Solemn Dedication took place on Thanksgiving Day, November 25, 1915, by Rt. Reverend Peter J. Muldoon, D.D., Bishop of Rockford. The mission had twenty six families. Our First Church (1915)

In the 1940’s, the parish was expanded by the creation of such subdivisions as Lake in the Hills, Haeger’s Bend, Riverview, Camp Algonquin, Algonquin Shores, and others. In June of 1954, Bishop Raymond P. Hillinger appointed Father Raymond N. Eipers as the first resident pastor in Algonquin, and on July 6, 1954 the corporation name was changed to Saint Margaret Church of Algonquin. One of Father Eipers’ first decisions as pastor was the purchase of a building for use as a rectory. The first rectory was located at 213 La Fox River Drive. The small mission Church built in 1915 had long been inadequate in size, and Father Eipers was authorized in 1955 to purchase a 10-acre plot for a future parish center. The land, located on Algonquin Road and Hubbard Street, one block east of the river, was to be the site of a combination School and Church building and the original farm house was renovated for use as a convent, with a total parish expenditure of $159,000.00.

With the Dominican Sisters of Springfield in charge, the school opened in September 1955, with 130 pupils in its first four grades and Sister Mary Estelle as the Principal. One grade was added each year so that by 1957 the enrollment for six grades was over 200 students and three Dominican Sister of Springfield and one lay teacher comprised the staff of the school. The old mission church was abandoned as a church and the congregation moved for a short time into the upper level of the Church/School building and then into the lower level (now known as McDonnell Hall)  on March 9, 1958.  The old mission church was converted into four additional classrooms, and was used by the parish during the 1960’s.

In 1969, Father Joseph J. Reikas was appointed the fourth pastor, and the school entered into share time instruction with the public district. Middle school students would travel to Algonquin Middle School for half-day sessions five times a week for courses in mathematics, earth science, history, industrial arts or home economics and physical education.  That shared time instruction continued until 1983.  The first of the Annual Parish Dinner Dances was held in 1976 as the country celebrated its bicentennial.

Father P. William McDonnell (now Monsignor)  was named pastor on January 28, 1979, and remained for a full term of 12 years.  Through the leadership of Father McDonnell, the parish began to grow in numbers and spirit. But the parish was quickly growing out of the Church, still located in the basement of the present Ministry Center. On August 28,1983, Bishop Arthur J. O’Neill, Bishop of Rockford, dedicated and blessed the new Church, Chapel, Parish Offices and Meeting Room facilities. Though the cost of the building was $1,650,000, the parish was able to pay off the costs completely within a 10-year period.

In the summer of 1985, Father McDonnell led a pilgrimage of parishioners and others to the Holy Land and Rome.  As they were returning, TWA Flight #847 was hijacked from the Athens Airport and forced to land in Beruit.  Some of pilgrims including Father McDonnell and the women, were released.  Fathers Thomas Dempsey and James McLoughlin remained hostages along with many members of the parish.  The experience for the parish was both a frightening one and a spiritual one, and showed the world the strength and faith of our parish community.

In early 1993, Father Michael Tierney (now Monsignor), was named pastor.  He led the parish for 18 years, the longest tenure of any pastor to date. In the late 1990’s he began to identify a growing and strong Filipino Community within the parish, and four Filipino associates have served at Saint Margaret Mary. Also during this time, he identified a group of people of Polish descent who wished to celebrate Mass as a community, and to have Sacraments and devotions in the Polish language.  Although they lived in the northwest suburban area, they continued to drive into the City of Chicago to go to Mass. The Divine Word Society, a Community of Priests and Brothers in Techny, Illinois came to the parish to assist with the Polish Community.  This community has grown to over 1,000 Polish families, and we now also have a Polish cultural school that teaches the children of these families both Religious Education and the history, culture, language, and geography of the Polish People and Nation.

In 2002, it became clear that the growth of the parish and its children and ministries required another increase in our parish physical plant. At that time the local public school district was looking to move the local grade school and indicated they would be interested in accepting Fr. Tierney’s offer to buy the Eastview school building and property. This purchase doubled the number of classes in our Catholic Elementary School and provided additional space for the Religious Education and Youth Ministry programs, as well as for meeting space for our many Parish ministries.  The purchase price was $3,400,000, but it would have been much more had we not received an additional blessing in the gift of construction and remodeling from an anonymous donor through a Catholic Foundation. The Catholic Elementary School, the Elementary religious educations programs, and the Polish school all moved into the new Education Center just after Labor Day 2003.

In 2011, the Parish began a new phase in its spiritual journey when the Diocese entered into an agreement with the Conventual Franciscans to establish a Friory with missionary priests based out of Krakow Poland. On July 1 of that year, Father Peter Sarnicki  became our 12^th pastor.

Starting in 2014 the Parish began a year long celebration of it’s founding as a Parish, culminating in a jubilee mass celebrated by Bishop David Malloy and attended by past and present priests and deacons. Also during that year the sanctuary received a major makeover with a white and rose marble floor and back wall highlighting a new San Damiano cross.

In the summer of 2020, at the height of the global COVID pandemic, Fr. Witold Adamczyk took over the stewardship of the flock and served until summer 2022 when both he and Fr. Sarnicki answered their missionary call to move to the Diocese of Peoria, and on August 1, 2022 Fr. Zbigniew Zajchowski, OFM Conv. became Parochial Administrator. He and his Friars now lead a flock of over 11,000 members of our parish, which is approximately 3,500 registered families.

The Rule of St. Francis

Chapter 1: In the Name of The Lord, The Life of the Lesser Brothers Begins…

The rule and life of the lesser brothers is this: To observe the holy gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, living in obedience without anything of our own, and in chastity. Brother Francis promises obedience and reverence to the Lord Pope Honorius and his canonically elected successors, and to the Roman Church; and the rest of the brothers are obliged to obey Francis and his successors.

Chapter 2: Concerning Those Who Wish To Adopt This Life

If someone should wish to adopt this life and should come to our brothers, they must send them to their provincial ministers to whom alone is granted the right to receive brothers. The ministers should examine them carefully regarding the Catholic faith and sacraments of the church. If they believe all these things, wishing to confess them faithfully and observe them diligently until the end; and if they have no wives, or their wives have entered a convent, or permission has been given to them by authority of their bishop, a vow of chastity having been taken and their wives being of such an age as to avoid suspicion; then let them go, sell all they have, and attempt to give it to the poor. If they cannot do so, their good intention will suffice.

Let the brothers and their ministers beware of becoming concerned about the new brothers’ temporal possessions, for they should freely dispose of their belongings as God inspires them. If they ask advice, the ministers may refer them to some God-fearing brothers through whose counsel their possessions may be distributed to the poor. Later, let them concede clothing of probation to the new brothers: Two tunics with hoods, belt and trousers, and a chaperon reaching down to the belt, unless the minister decides according to God that something else should be done. When the year of probation is over, let them be received into obedience, promising to observe this life and rule always; and, according to the command of the lord pope, it will be absolutely forbidden to them to leave the order, for according the holy gospel “no one who puts his hand to the plow and then looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”

And let those who have promised obedience take one tunic with a hood, and let those who wish it have another without a hood. And those who must may wear shoes. All the brothers are to wear inexpensive clothing, and they can use sackcloth and other material to mend it with God’s blessing.

Chapter 3: Concerning The Divine Office and Fasting; And How The Brothers Ought to Travel Through The World

Clerics are to perform the divine office according to the rite of the Roman Church, except for the Psalter, and they can have breviaries for that purpose. Laymen are to say twenty-four “Our Fathers” at matins; five at lauds; seven each at prime, terce, sext and none; twelve at vespers; and seven at compline. They should also pray for the dead. They should fast from the feast of all saints until Christmas. Those who voluntarily fast at Quadragessima, those forty days after Epiphany which the Lord consecrated with his own holy fasting, will themselves be blessed by the Lord; yet they are not required to do so if they do not want to. They must fast during Lent, but they are not required to do so at other times except on Fridays. In case of obvious necessity, however, they are excused from bodily fasting.

I counsel, admonish and beg my brothers that, when they travel about the world, they should not be quarrelsome, dispute with words, or criticise others, but rather should be gentle, peaceful and unassuming, courteous and humble, speaking respectfully to all as is fitting. They must not ride on horseback unless forced to so by obvious necessity or illness. Whatever house they enter, they are first to say, “Peace to this house” (Lk. 10:5). According to the holy gospel they can eat whatever food is set before them.

Chapter 4: That The Brothers Should Not Accept Money

I strictly forbid the brothers to receive money in any form either directly or through an intermediary. Nevertheless, the ministers and custodians can work through spiritual friends to care for the sick and clothe the brothers, according to place, season and climate, as necessity may seem to demand. This must be done, however, in such a way that they do not receive money.

Chapter 5: On Their Manner of Working

Those brothers whom the Lord favors with the gift of working should do so faithfully and devotedly, so that idleness, the enemy of the soul, is excluded yet the spirit of holy prayer and devotion, which all other temporal things should serve, is not extinguished. As payment for their labor let them receive that which is necessary for themselves and their brothers, but not money. Let them receive it humbly as befits those who serve God and seek after the holiest poverty.

Chapter 6: That The Brothers Should Appropriate Nothing For Themselves; And On How Alms Should Be Begged; And Concerning Sick Brothers

The brothers should appropriate neither house, nor place, nor anything for themselves; and they should go confidently after alms, serving God in poverty and humility, as pilgrims and strangers in this world. Nor should they feel ashamed, for God made himself poor in this world for us. This is that peak of the highest poverty which has made you, my dearest brothers, heirs and kings of the kingdom of heaven, poor in things but rich in virtues. Let this be your portion. It leads into the land of the living and, adhering totally to it, for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ wish never to have anything else in this world, beloved brothers.

And wherever brothers meet one another, let them act like members of a common family. And let them securely make their needs known to one another, for if a mother loves and cares for her carnal son, how much more should one love and care for his spiritual son? And if one of them should become ill, let the other brothers serve him as they themselves would like to be served.

Chapter 7: On The Penances To Be Imposed on Sinning Brothers

If any of the brothers should sin mortally at the instigation of the enemy, they should recur to their provincial ministers without delay if the sin is one of those for which such recourse is required. The ministers, if they are priests, should mercifully prescribe a penance for them. If they are not priests, they should see that it is prescribed by others in the order who are such, as seems best to them according to God. They should be careful not to become angry and upset over someone’s sin, for anger and perturbation in oneself or others impedes love.

Chapter 8: On The Election of The General Minister of This Brotherhood; And on The Chapter at Pentecost

The brothers are always bound to have a brother of the order as general minister and servant of the entire brotherhood, and they are strictly bound to obey him. When he dies, his successor is to be elected by the provincial ministers and custodians during the Pentecost chapter, at which provincial ministers are always to assemble in the place designated by the minister general. The general chapter should meet every three years, or sooner or later if the minister general should so ordain. If at some point it should appear to the provincial ministers and custodians that the minister general is incapable of serving the brothers properly, the aforesaid brothers to whom election is entrusted should, in the name of God, choose someone else. After the Pentecost chapter, the ministers and custodians may call their brothers to a chapter in their own custody’s once in the same year, if they wish and it seems worthwhile.

Chapter 9: On Preachers

The friars must not preach in the diocese of any bishop if they have been forbidden to do so by him. And no brother should dare preach to the people unless he has been examined and approved by the minister general of his brotherhood and the office of preaching has been conceded to him. I also admonish and exhort the brothers that in their preaching their words be studied and chaste, useful and edifying to the people, telling them about vices and virtues, punishment and glory; and they ought to be brief, because the Lord kept his words brief when he was on earth.

Chapter 10: On The Admonition and Correction of Brothers

Brothers who are ministers and servants of other brothers must visit and admonish their brothers, and they should correct them humbly and lovingly, prescribing nothing against their soul or our rule. Brothers who are subject to authority must remember that they have surrendered their own wills for the sake of God. Thus I strictly order them to obey their ministers in all those things which they have promised the Lord to observe and which are not contrary to the soul and to our rule. And wherever there are brothers who know they cannot observe the rule spiritually, those brothers should and may recur to their ministers. The ministers should receive them lovingly and generously and treat them so intimately that the brothers can speak and act as lords do with their servants. For that is the way it ought to be. The ministers should be servants of all the brothers.

I admonish and exhort the brothers in the Lord Jesus Christ to beware of all pride, vainglory, envy, avarice, worldly care and concern, criticism and complaint. And I admonish the illiterate not to worry about studying but to realize instead that above all they should wish to have the spirit of the Lord working within them, and that they should pray to him constantly with a pure heart, be humble, be patient in persecution and infirmity, and love those who persecute, blame or accuse us, for the Lord says, “Love your enemies, pray for those who persecute and accuse you” (Mtt. 5:44). “Blessed are those who suffer persecution for justice’s sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Mtt. 5:10). “He who has persevered until the end, however, will be saved” (Mt. 10:22).

Chapter 11: That the Brothers Should Not Enter the Convents of Nuns

I strictly order all the brothers to avoid suspicious meetings or conversations with women and to stay out of the convents of nuns except in cases where special permission has been granted by the Holy See. Nor should they be godfathers of men or women, lest it lead to scandal among or concerning the brothers.

Chapter 12: Concerning Those Who Go Among the Saracens and Other Infidels

Whoever should, by divine inspiration, wish to go among the Saracens and other infidels must ask permission from their provincial ministers. The ministers should grant permission only to those whom they consider qualified to be sent. I enjoin the ministers by obedience to ask the Lord Pope for a cardinal of the Holy Roman Church to serve as governor, protector and corrector of their brotherhood so that we servants and subjects at the feet of holy church, firm in faith, will always observe the poverty, humility and holy gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ which we firmly promised.