Set on the Fox River in the southeastern corner of McHenry County, Saint Margaret Mary Catholic Church has served Algonquin, Lake in the Hills, and parts of Barrington Hills since 1915. Today the parish of roughly 3,500 registered families is a Conventual Franciscan community led by friars from St. Anthony of Padua and Blessed James of Strepa Province in Krakow, Poland, and it gathers every week in two languages. Mass is celebrated in English and in Polish, Reconciliation is heard in both tongues, and ministries unfold in both, a rhythm that has defined the parish since 2011, when the Diocese of Rockford welcomed the Conventual Franciscans to establish a friary on the parish campus.
Mass in English and Polish, Six Mornings a Week
Saint Margaret Mary offers Mass almost every day of the week, with a daily schedule that fits working families and a bilingual weekend schedule that fills the church from dawn to evening. On weekdays, Mass is celebrated at 6:45 AM and 8:30 AM on Monday through Thursday, and at 6:45 AM on Friday, with a 9:00 AM Friday Mass during the school year and an 8:30 AM Friday Mass during the summer. On Monday evenings, Mass is offered in Polish at 7:00 PM, and on the first Friday of every month a 7:30 PM Mass in Polish is added. Saturday morning Mass is at 8:30 AM, followed by the Vigil Mass at 4:30 PM and a 6:30 PM Mass in Polish. Sunday Masses run at 7:00 AM, 9:00 AM, 11:00 AM, and 1:00 PM (in Polish), with a 4:30 PM Sunday Mass celebrated from the second weekend of September through the third weekend of May.
Low-gluten hosts are available for those who need them by asking the priest in the center aisle at any Mass. Live audio and video of select Masses are streamed on the parish's YouTube channel for parishioners who cannot attend in person.
Adoration Through the Night, Reconciliation Twice a Week
Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament is a central part of parish life. The chapel is open for adoration on Monday evenings from 8:00 PM to 9:00 PM, with Benediction at the close. On Wednesdays, Exposition begins after the 8:30 AM Mass and continues overnight until 6:30 AM on Thursday, with adorers signing up to keep watch through the quiet hours; those planning to be present between 11:00 PM and 4:30 AM arrange access to a key through the parish office. On Fridays, adoration begins after the 9:15 AM Mass (or the 8:30 AM summer Mass) and continues until 6:00 PM, ending with Benediction. On the first Friday of every month, an additional hour of reparation and devotion is dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Reconciliation is offered in English and Polish in the chapel on Tuesday evenings from 6:00 PM to 7:00 PM and on Saturdays from 9:00 AM to 10:00 AM and again from 3:00 PM to 4:00 PM. Parishioners are encouraged to take advantage of the sacrament at least monthly.
The parish also keeps a regular devotional life beyond the sacraments. The Our Lady of Perpetual Help Holy Rosary and Novena is prayed every Tuesday evening at 7:30 PM, with Mass added on the first Tuesday of the month. The In Spirit and In Truth charismatic prayer group gathers on the second and fourth Fridays of each month at 8:00 PM in McDonnell Hall, with prayer, Scripture, witness, praise, and song. A women's prayer group meets Wednesday mornings at 9:30 AM, both in person and by Zoom, and a men's group meets Wednesday evenings at 7:00 PM, also in person and online. That Man Is You, an interactive men's program, gathers on Saturday mornings at 6:00 AM.
A Parish of Polish Friars, From 1915 to Today
Saint Margaret Mary is among the oldest Catholic communities along the Fox River. Missionaries were celebrating the sacraments here as early as 1845, but the parish was formally organized in 1915 by Father Joseph M. Lonergan, who also founded SS. Peter and Paul in Cary. He bought land along the banks of the river, just below the dam near Harrison and Water, from Mrs. F. J. Kelahan in 1914, and on July 11, 1915, with nearly three thousand people gathered for the laying of the cornerstone, the new brick Greek Revival church was begun. Bishop Peter J. Muldoon of Rockford dedicated it on Thanksgiving Day, November 25, 1915. Twenty-six families made up that first mission.
The middle of the twentieth century brought rapid growth. In June 1954, Bishop Raymond P. Hillinger appointed Father Raymond N. Eipers the first resident pastor, and on July 6 of that year the corporation was renamed Saint Margaret Church of Algonquin. The first rectory was purchased at 213 La Fox River Drive, and in 1955 Father Eipers bought a ten-acre plot on Algonquin Road and Hubbard Street, one block east of the river, for a future parish center. With the Dominican Sisters of Springfield in charge, the school opened in September 1955 with 130 pupils in the first four grades. By 1957, six grades were in session, taught by three Dominican sisters and a lay teacher. The old mission church, no longer large enough, was converted into classrooms, and the congregation moved into what is now McDonnell Hall on March 9, 1958.
Father Joseph J. Reikas became the fourth pastor in 1969 and oversaw a share-time arrangement with the public district for middle-school subjects that continued until 1983. Father P. William McDonnell, later Monsignor, was named pastor on January 28, 1979, and served for twelve years. Under his leadership, Bishop Arthur J. O'Neill dedicated and blessed the new church, chapel, parish offices, and meeting room facilities on August 28, 1983. The $1,650,000 building was paid off within a decade. In the summer of 1985, Father McDonnell led a pilgrimage to the Holy Land and Rome; on the return trip, TWA Flight 847 was hijacked from Athens and forced to land in Beirut, an experience that drew the parish together in prayer around the men who were held hostage.
Father Michael Tierney, now Monsignor, took the reins in early 1993 and led the parish for eighteen years, the longest tenure of any pastor. In the late 1990s he identified a growing Filipino community within the parish and welcomed four Filipino associates, and he also began gathering Polish-descent Catholics who had been driving into Chicago for Mass in their own language. The Divine Word Society, a community of priests and brothers from Techny, Illinois, helped establish a Polish Mass, and that community has since grown to more than one thousand families, with a Polish cultural school that teaches the children both religious education and the history, language, and geography of Poland. In 2002 the parish purchased the former Eastview public school building and five acres of property, doubling the number of classrooms in the Catholic elementary school and providing space for religious education, youth ministry, and a wide range of parish meetings.
On July 1, 2011, the parish entered a new chapter when the Diocese of Rockford and the Conventual Franciscans established a friary with missionary priests from Krakow. Father Peter Sarnicki became the twelfth pastor. A year-long celebration of the parish's founding culminated in 2014 in a jubilee Mass with Bishop David Malloy, and the sanctuary was refurbished with a white and rose marble floor and a back wall highlighting a new Cross of San Damiano. In the summer of 2020, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Father Witold Adamczyk took over the parish, and on August 1, 2022, Father Zbigniew Zajchowski, OFM Conv., was named Parochial Administrator. He and his friars now lead a flock of about 11,000 people, roughly 3,500 registered families.
The Sanctuary: San Damiano, Crosby Willet Glass, and the Sacred Heart
Inside the church, the most striking image is a replica of the Cross of San Damiano, the famed crucifix before which St. Francis of Assisi first heard Christ call him to rebuild the church. The original cross, fashioned around the year 1100, hangs in the Church of Santa Chiara in Assisi; the version at Saint Margaret Mary is a reminder of the parish's Franciscan vocation and a point of devotion for the Secular Franciscan fraternity that meets here.
The stained glass windows are the work of the Crosby Willet Studios of Philadelphia, an internationally renowned firm founded in 1898. Willet gained worldwide prominence in 1910 when it won a special international competition for the design and installation of windows at the West Point Military Academy Chapel, beating twenty-five other studios, including the studio of Louis B. Tiffany. Over the next sixty-six years, Willet installed two window sections a year. Among the firm's better-known works are the college chapels of Princeton, Ohio State, and Northwestern; the windows of the National Cathedral and the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.; the Cathedral of St. John the Divine and the former chapel of the United Nations Building in New York; Grace Episcopal Cathedral in San Francisco; and St. Mary's Catholic Cathedral, also in San Francisco.
The parish is named for Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque, the French Visitandine nun of Paray-le-Monial who, in 1673, received the revelations of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Her feast day is October 16. Her story spans her childhood in Burgundy through her religious profession at the convent of the Visitation, the long years when no one believed her visions, and her death in 1690 at the age of 43. She was beatified by Pope Pius IX in 1864 and canonized by Pope Benedict XV in 1920. The cult of the Sacred Heart, which she spread, was officially recognized in 1765 by Pope Clement XIII and is celebrated on the Friday after the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ in June.
The Campus on Hubbard Street
Saint Margaret Mary's campus stretches along Algonquin Road to Hubbard Street, with the church and parish offices at the western end, the Ministry Center with McDonnell Hall in the middle, and the parish school bounded by Eastgate Drive on the east. Between the church and the school sits the friary, the priests' residence, the Walking Together Resale Shop in the beige former farmhouse at the south end of the parking lot, and McGivney Hall, the home of the Knights of Columbus and a parish storage building. A playground and athletic fields lie just south of the school.
The parish office is open Sunday from 8:00 AM to 1:00 PM, Monday through Thursday from 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM, and Friday from 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM; it is closed on Saturday. The Walking Together Resale Shop accepts clean, gently used clothing, shoes, and small household goods and is open Tuesday and Wednesday from 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM, Thursday and Friday from 10:00 AM to 12:30 PM, Saturday from 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM, and on the second Sunday of the month from 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM. In case of emergency after office hours, a parish priest can be reached at 847-658-7625, extension 1112.
The Polish Community, Two Masses a Week and a Cultural School
Since the late 1990s the Polish Community at Saint Margaret Mary has grown from a small group of families driving into Chicago for Mass to a community of more than one thousand families who celebrate two weekly Masses, the sacraments, and devotions in their own language. Polish Masses are celebrated on Saturday at 6:30 PM, on Sunday at 1:00 PM, on Monday at 7:00 PM, on the first Friday of every month at 7:30 PM, and on holy days. Reconciliation in Polish is available at the same regular times as the English schedule. Polish baptisms are celebrated on the second and fourth weekends before the 5:45 PM Mass on Saturday and before the 12:15 PM Sunday Mass.
The community is led by Magdalena Remesz-Kopeć and supports its own lectors, altar servers, and youth ministry, as well as a children's choir, the Singing Angels of Saint Margaret Mary, which rehearses on the first and third Sundays of each month at noon. A separate Polish cultural school teaches the children of these families both religious education and the history, culture, language, and geography of Poland. The Knights of Mary, a men's community within the parish, gather for rosary devotions on the first Saturdays of the month and lead prayers and devotions throughout the year, with a special concern for the holiness of marriage and family.
The Filipino Community gathers monthly for fellowship and celebrates Simbang Gabi, the traditional Philippine Advent novena of dawn Masses leading up to Christmas. Throughout the year, all the parish's ethnic groups come together for multilingual Masses and celebrations.
Saint Margaret Mary Catholic School and Marian Central
Saint Margaret Mary Catholic School, on the eastern side of the campus, offers a values-based Catholic education for students from preschool (age 3) through eighth grade. The school's mission is to develop faith life, build community, and serve others; its curriculum covers science, mathematics, social studies, language arts, the arts, physical education, a band program, and religious studies, with the goal of fostering respect for each person and a healthy self-concept. The principal is Brenna O'Hearn.
For high school, the parish is served by Marian Central Catholic High School in Woodstock, a college-preparatory Catholic school that shares with the parents and parishes of the McHenry Deanery the teaching mission of the Church. Marian provides an education infused with Catholic Christian values designed to promote religious, spiritual, intellectual, physical, social, and emotional development.
Faith Formation from Preschool through High School
Religious education for children who do not attend the parish school is organized around GATHER, the Family Faith Formation program. GATHER brings together students from preschool through high school, with at least one parent required to participate alongside the children. Catholic school families are welcome to join as well. The program prepares children in second grade for First Confession and First Communion, and older children in third through fifth grades who have not yet been baptized or received First Communion are served by Finding God Together, a family-centered process in which parent and child attend classes together.
Confirmation preparation is a one-year, eight-session process that begins in September and ends in the spring; in the Diocese of Rockford, teens may be confirmed as early as ninth grade. Adults eighteen and older who have not received the Sacrament of Confirmation are invited to six sessions of the Adult Confirmation Class, scheduled after Christmas, with Confirmation celebrated when the Bishop comes to the parish. The Order of Christian Initiation of Adults (OCIA), formerly known as RCIA, welcomes adults who wish to explore the Catholic faith and prepare to receive the Sacraments of Initiation, whether they are unbaptized, baptized Protestant, or baptized Catholic. The process typically runs about nine months and begins whenever a person feels called to inquire, with the formal catechumenate gelling in late August and early September. There is no fee.
Junior High and High School Youth Ministry brings middle and high schoolers together for faith groups, retreats, socials, youth Masses, service projects, large-group speakers, and interaction with neighboring youth groups. The She Shall Be Called Woman program, for women, and That Man Is You, for men, offer parallel small-group experiences that are open to all adults in the parish.
Sacraments, with Time to Prepare
The parish prepares couples, families, and individuals for every sacrament of Catholic life. Parents who wish to baptize an infant begin by making an appointment at the parish office, after which the parents attend a baptismal class on the first (or sometimes the second) Tuesday of the month at 7:00 PM. Baptisms are celebrated in English on the first and third weekends after the 4:30 PM Saturday Mass and after the 9:00 AM Sunday Mass, and in Polish on the second and fourth weekends before the 5:45 PM Saturday Mass and before the 12:15 PM Sunday Mass.
Couples preparing for marriage must contact the parish office and review the guidelines. An assessment process determines the amount of preparation time, and an Engaged Encounter Weekend is required. No wedding dates are set until the first or second meeting with the priest, and couples must be at least nineteen years old and begin the process six months to a year before the desired date. A wedding booklet is available in the parish office or can be downloaded.
The Anointing of the Sick is for those with a serious illness and is meant to be received at the beginning of the illness rather than near death. A communal anointing is celebrated during the Easter season at the Sunday Masses. Visitation ministers bring Holy Communion to parishioners who are sick at home, in the hospital, or in nursing homes; the parish is responsible for taking Holy Communion to Catholic patients at Sherman Hospital each Monday. In a grave emergency after office hours, a parish priest can be reached at 224-509-8340.
Community Outreach: Vincentians, Prayer Shawls, and a Resale Shop
Saint Margaret Mary takes seriously its call to serve the wider Algonquin and Lake in the Hills community. Two monthly teams shop, cook, deliver, and serve breakfast for people who are homeless in Elgin, on different Mondays each month, alongside other ecumenical groups. The parish's chapter of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul offers person-to-person, in-home service to those in need in the area, and a separate parish social outreach ministry coordinates school supplies for children, the Christmas Giving Tree with gifts for the elderly, single mothers, and families in financial hardship, and clothing drives for area shelters. A prison ministry supports Kairos, a weekend retreat program for incarcerated men.
The Walking Together Resale Shop is the parish's thrift operation, accepting clean, gently used clothing and shoes, household goods, books, toys, and other small items. Donations can be brought in during shop hours or left in the storage box outside the shop. The Rosary Makers ministry produces rosaries for hospitals, charities, the church, and the school, and welcomes people with disabilities, who can work at their own pace. Prayer Shawls knits, crochets, and creates handcrafts for those in need of healing or comfort; the group meets Wednesday mornings from 10:00 to 11:00 AM in the lower level of the Activity Room at Eastgate Manor, and on the third Monday of each month from 7:00 to 8:30 PM in Room 6 of the Ministry Center. The Mail Team supports the parish's correspondence needs, and the Web Ministry keeps the parish's online presence current.
The St. Dymphna Mental Health Ministry
One of the more unusual outreach efforts at Saint Margaret Mary is the St. Dymphna Mental Health Ministry, named for the seventh-century Irish saint who is the patroness of those suffering nervous and mental afflictions. The group meets on the second and fourth Thursdays of each month from 7:00 to 8:30 PM. The second Thursday focuses on group and individual discussion with prayer; the fourth Thursday adds an educational or information session. The ministry's stated goals are to provide comfort during mental health challenges such as depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, panic attacks, suicidal thoughts, psychosis, self-harm, addiction, and loss; to encourage prayer as part of self-care; to facilitate connections that promote mental wellness; and to distribute resources for care, support, and treatment. The parish links members to a wide range of local resources, including Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Rockford, the National Alliance on Mental Health, McHenry County Health Services, Northwestern Medicine Woodstock Emergency Mental Health Services, United Way, the McHenry County College Crisis Intervention and Prevention Services, the McHenry Community Health Center, and area crisis hotlines. For a behavioral health crisis, the ministry points to 988; for life-threatening emergencies, 911.
Knights of Columbus, the Shamrock Shave, and Other Community Builders
Saint Margaret Mary hosts Council 11091 of the Knights of Columbus, a Catholic men's fraternity established in 1882 to support the Church, protect families through affordable insurance, and serve those in need. The council supports people with intellectual disabilities, stocks food banks, and engages in works of charity locally and around the world.
Each spring the parish holds the Shamrock Shave, a benefit for needy families in the community. Over the past eighteen years, the event has raised more than $545,000 for local causes, including the St. Vincent de Paul Society, with a recent year bringing in over $23,000 through shavee pledges, dinners, and performances. The 2026 event drew an estimated 250 adults and children and served more than 300 Irish and chicken-tender dinners, with the Dundee Scottish Pipe Band and the Mayer School of Irish Dance providing entertainment.
Other community life ministries include the Adopt a Plot gardening group, which tends flower beds around the church and parking lot; the Culture of Life committee, which supports crisis pregnancy centers, sponsors the annual Life-Chain on the first Sunday of October, and runs a Mother's Day flower sale, Father's Day gifts, and a pro-life booth at the McHenry County Fair; the Church Cleaning team, which prepares the building for Easter and Christmas; the Ever So Young Seniors, who meet monthly for bingo, fellowship, and outings; Financial Peace University; the Funeral Luncheons hospitality ministry; the Grief Support Group; Marriage Encounter weekends; the Parish Health team, which offers monthly blood pressure screenings and CPR refreshers; and a Pilgrimages ministry that organizes trips to holy sites.
Stewardship of Time, Talent, and Treasure
Saint Margaret Mary describes itself as a Stewardship Parish, inviting every family to share a portion of their Time, Talent, and Treasure for the growth and development of God's Kingdom. The three stewardship sign-up forms (Time, Talent, and Treasure) are linked from the parish's Stewardship page, with separate entries recommended for each participating family member. Stewardship also supports specific projects, including the school building debt, which as of February 2026 had been paid down to $700,000, with $2,650,868 of the original $3,350,868 already retired. The RaiseRight gift card program offers another way for parishioners to direct everyday spending toward the parish: 750+ brands participate, with a percentage of each gift card purchase returning to the parish.
The Rule of St. Francis and the Jubilee of 2026
Because Saint Margaret Mary is a Conventual Franciscan parish, the Rule of St. Francis, in all twelve of its chapters, is reproduced in full, from the opening exhortation to observe the holy Gospel of Jesus Christ in obedience, without anything of one's own, and in chastity, to the final chapter on those who go among the Saracens and other infidels. The rule's poverty, humility, and gospel simplicity are the spiritual ground of the parish's life.
The year 2026 marks the eight-hundredth anniversary of St. Francis's death on October 3, 1226, and the Secular Franciscan fraternity at Saint Margaret Mary celebrates the Transitus of Francis on that date with a bilingual service in church. Pope Leo has called for a Jubilee Year of Saint Francis from January 10, 2026 through January 10, 2027, with a plenary indulgence available under the usual conditions to anyone who, in the form of a pilgrimage, visits any Franciscan Conventual church or place of worship dedicated to St. Francis, including Saint Margaret Mary itself, and there devoutly follows the Jubilee rites or spends time in pious meditation, concluding with the Our Father, the Creed, and invocations to the Blessed Virgin Mary, St. Francis, St. Clare, and all the Franciscan saints.
More than a century after a small group of families first gathered for Mass in a brick church on the banks of the Fox River, Saint Margaret Mary Catholic Church remains a place where the Gospel is preached in two languages, the Eucharist is adored through the night, the school bell still rings on Hubbard Street, and a community of friars from Krakow keeps the spirit of the Poverello of Assisi alive on the prairie north of Chicago.