The Salesians arrived in Przemyśl, on the border with Ukraine, at the invitation of the then bishop of Przemyśl, Bishop Jan Sebastian Pelczar, now a saint, who discussed the matter first with Don Bosco and then with his First Successor, Fr Michael Rua. It was Fr Rua himself who gave permission to build the religious house and the church and to erect the parish.

Two great Salesians worked in Przemyśl: the Venerable Cardinal August Hlond, Primate of Poland; and Fr Antoni Hlond (Chlondowski), an exceptional composer and founder of the Organ School, known throughout Poland, which unfortunately was later closed by the Communist authorities. A Salesian school for poor young people was also founded in the Salesian house in Przemyśl, and Cardinal Karol Wojtyła, who later became Pope John Paul II, visited it several times, sponsoring the "Sacrosong" Festival of Religious Chants in 1975.

To celebrate the anniversary, an exhibition of photographs and archival documents was also prepared, both of the parish and of the independence of Poland, on the 105th anniversary. The exhibition was organised by a parishioner, Józef Rybczyński, who used his extensive collections for this purpose. In addition, the Polish Post Office issued a commemorative philatelic sheet, designed by Rybczyński himself, to remember the exhibition, which gives an account of the many events that occurred in the hundred years of the Salesian parish of Przemyśl, with a great impact on the entire citizenship.

The history of the St Joseph's parish is linked to the arrival of the Salesians in Przemyśl, in 1907. Bishop Pelczar, in fact, bought a one-storey house with agricultural buildings and arable land and handed them over to the Salesians, who arrived from Oświęcim, at his invitation, on 26 July of that year. The first Director was Fr August Hond, then cardinal and Primate of Poland. Shortly after, the Salesians settled in the donated house at the intersection of San Giovanni Nepomuceno and Monsignor Jakub Glazer streets, and began to organise religious and pastoral life, taking care of the young people, sometimes very neglected or demoralised by the soldiers from the nearby barracks. In an outpost established in the Zasanie district of the city, in June 1910 construction began on an institute, an orphanage for children, under the direction of engineer Józef Wojtyga. The following year the plant was ready. The consecration of the two-storey building took place in October 1911 by Bishop Pelczar, in the presence of the Rector Major of the Salesian Congregation, Fr Paul Albera, who came from Italy to attend the ceremony.

After the construction of the oratory premises, equipped with a large chapel to serve young people and the faithful in general, on 12 August 1912 the construction of the actual church began, according to plans drawn up by the architect, professor of the Academy of Turin, Mario Ceradini, in collaboration with  architect Stanisław Majorski and engineer Stefan Muller of Krakow. On 4 May 1913, Bishop Pelczar consecrated the foundation stone of the new church. But due to the outbreak of the First World War, construction work was halted in July 1914.

However, the school was transformed into a military hospital. At the end of the war, only the central nave of the Church had been built. Only after the end of hostilities did the construction resume with the installation of the roof on the side aisles. Between 1922 and 1923, an elegant Gothic vault rested on the slender pillars of the central nave. Fundraising for the new church was handled by the committee for the construction of the church, chaired by Stanisław Goliński, former Dean of the secondary school in Zasanie. The church was consecrated by Bishop Pelczar on 18 November 1923. On that day he also erected it as a parish dedicated to Saint Joseph. Fr Antoni Hlond was its first parish priest and Fr Rudolf Komorek, now Venerable, the assistant priest.

Inside the church in the vestibule of the side aisle, there is a statue of Our Lady of the Rosary and a crypt with the coffin of Blessed August Czartoryski. The crypt contained the relics of Czartoryski, transported there from Sieniawa in 1964, until 2004, when, during the function of thanksgiving for his beatification, they were solemnly transferred to the side altar dedicated to Mary Help of Christians and placed in the prelude to the altar – an altar completely renovated in 2004, with the financial participation of the Municipality of Przemyśl.

Either side of the sanctuary are the sacristy, on the left, and the chapel of St John Bosco, on the right, which joins the Salesian School – in fact, the August Czartoryski Salesian school has also been operating since 2001.

World War II providentially spared the church. But after the liberation, before the feast of Corpus Christi on 30 May 1945, there was an attack by the soldiers of the Red Army, resulting in the death of two Salesians: Ludwik Cienciała and Fr Jan Dolata. This tragic event is commemorated by a large cross and an epitaph on the wall of the former presbytery, beside the courtyard. The entire site, the church with its furnishings and the adjacent building, is classified as a National Heritage Site.

Fr Jacek Ryłko, SDB

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