Blessed Carlo Acutis is the Patron of our Parish. He is a wonderful model for who we are and who we want to become. In knowing Carlo, we can see that anyone can be a Saint if they believe and dedicate their life to Jesus. Carlo is an especially great role model not only for the whole parish, but for all the children and youth in the neighborhood and for our school St. John Berchmans. We know that Carlo will help guide and build this great community to do amazing things and we are all happy to be a part of it.

Our Churches, St. Hedwig and St. John Berchmans, were long standing pillars in the neighborhoods of Bucktown and Logan Square and have now been called to come together as one parish under the guidance of Blessed Carlo Acutis. Blessed Carlo Acutis Parish now has an opportunity to use each of our former parishes strengths to show the city of Chicago and the world what we as Catholics can do when we combine our spiritual and temporal resources for the good of the community with Christ as our guide.
About Blessed Carlo Acutis
Carlo Acutis was just like any of us - a child with an open mind and an open heart. Carlo Acutis was born in London on May 3, 1991 and baptized just a few weeks later. Carlo and his family moved to Milan in September of 1991. 

Carlo was a practicing Catholic at a very young age, even though his parents were not very religious. Carlo was a shining light in the community and was recognized by many for caring deeply for his faith and especially for the Eucharist. Carlo, like all Catholics believed that Jesus is present in the Eucharist and being in his presence was a very special part of Carlo’s faith life. Because of his devotion to the Eucharist Carlo received his First Holy Communion as soon as he was able, at the age of 7. 

At school in Milan, Carlo was like most kids, but he was especially sensitive to the needs of those around him. He was concerned with those who were struggling, whether it was a child whose family was getting a divorce, a student with a disability or one who was being bullied. In his neighborhood, Carlo was concerned with those less fortunate in the streets and would try and help them when he was able. 

Carlo was considered somewhat of a computer nerd and was known to spend a good amount of time on the computer, PlayStation or with comics. Carlo was very skilled with computers and computer coding. Carlo took his love of the Eucharist and his love of computer programming and built his own website. The website documented the Eucharistic Miracles from all over the world. He completed the entire website at the age of 11! 

The Acutis family was fortunate enough to be able to travel to many places, but Carlo’s favorite place to go was to Assisi, Italy. Assisi is of course the home of where not one, but two saints, St. Clare of Assisi and St. Francis of Assisi were born and are now buried within a mile of each other, and Carlo was known to be a frequent visitor to these sites.

At the age of 15 Carlo Acutis was diagnosed with Leukemia but continued to be very strong in his faith in Jesus. Even through all the pain Carlo would continue to preach his love of the Eucharist and was known to say, "there are people who suffer much more than me". Carlo Died on October 12, 2006.
On October 10, 2020, at the Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi, Italy, Carlo was beatified.
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About Our Parish Logo
Our Parish logo pays many homages to Carlo Acutis.

The first, which is seen right away, are the letters IHS. These letters are the Greek translation of Jesus, sometimes said “In Jesus’ Name.” The letters represent the Eucharist inside a monstrance.

The monstrance is the golden shape around the letters and represents the vessel that holds the Eucharist when it is brought out of the tabernacle for adoration.

Around this symbol for Jesus is a series of zeros and ones. These zeros and ones spell the name CARLO in binary code. Binary code is the “language” used to make a website.

At the top of the monstrance is the cross in the same style as the cross on top of one of the church sites.

Lastly are the colors navy and gold. There are many pictures of Carlo wearing many different colors, but as his last outfit for his burial his parents choose Navy. Navy and Gold are always a great color combination, but more so when you consider how they represent Carlo and Jesus, the clothes, and the monstrance.
History of St. Hedwig Church
In 1888, St. Hedwig Church was founded by the Congregation of the Resurrection.  It was established to serve the Polish families in Bucktown.  It was the fourth Polish parish in Chicago to be staffed by the Resurrectionist Fathers, who oversee St. Hedwig Church today.

In January 1889, three Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth were appointed to staff a school, located in the church building.  The school subsequently relocated to the building at 2124 W. Webster Avenue, where the Sisters took up residence in a portion of the combination structure. 

Today, St. Hedwig Church serves a diverse population of parishioners from Chicago and the suburbs, including the Polish, Latino and Filipino communities. 

History of St. John Berchmans Church
In 1905 Archbishop James Edward Quigley asked Father John De Schryver, SJ., a professor at St. Ignatius College, to organize a parish for the Belgian community in Chicago. Named for the patron saint of young people, students and altar servers, St. John Berchmans Parish (SJB) was established on September 3, 1905.

​In 1907 the Dominican Sisters of Kentucky started the school.
Standing for over one hundred years as a Beacon of Hope and anchor of this Logan Square community, Saint John Berchmans has a rich history that kept up with this ever-changing neighbor. Please read the Complete Parish History for more details about our past, then join us each Sunday to become part of our future.
Who is Saint Hedwig?
Hedwig of Silesia (Silesian: Świyntŏ Hyjdla), also Hedwig of Andechs (German: Heilige Hedwig von Andechs, Polish: Święta Jadwiga Śląska, Latin: Hedvigis; 1174 – 15 October 1243), a member of the Bavarian comital House of Andechs, was Duchess of Silesia from 1201 and of Greater Poland from 1231 as well as High Duchess consort of Poland from 1232 until 1238. She was canonized by the Catholic Church in 1267 by Pope Clement IV.

Life
The daughter of Count Berthold IV of Andechs, margrave of Carniola and Istria and his second wife Agnes of Wettin,[4] she was born at Andechs Castle in the Duchy of Bavaria. Her elder sister, Agnes, married King Philip II of France (annulled in 1200) and her sister Gertrude (killed in 1213) married King Andrew II of Hungary, while the youngest Matilda, (Mechtild) became abbess at the Benedictine Abbey of Kitzingen in Franconia, where Hedwig also received her education. Hedwig's brother was Bishop Ekbert of Bamberg, Count of Andechs-Meranien. Another brother was Berthold, Archbishop of Kalocsa and Patriarch of Aquileia, while her brother Henry, Margrave of Istria was the first lord of Carniola.[5]

Through her sister Gertrude, she was the aunt of Elizabeth of Hungary.

Duchess consort
At the age of twelve, Hedwig married Henry I the Bearded, son and heir of the Piast duke Boleslaus the Tall of Silesia. As soon as Henry succeeded his father in 1201, he had to struggle with his Piast relatives, at first with his uncle Duke Mieszko IV Tanglefoot who immediately seized the Upper Silesian Duchy of Opole. In 1206 Henry and his cousin Duke Władysław III Spindleshanks of Greater Poland agreed to swap the Silesian Lubusz Land against the Kalisz region, which met with fierce protest by Władysław's III nephew Władysław Odonic. When Henry went to Gąsawa in 1227 to meet his Piast cousins, he narrowly saved his life, while High Duke Leszek I the White was killed by the men of the Pomerelian Duke Swietopelk II, instigated by Władysław Odonic.

Hedwig intercedes between Henry and Konrad, 19th century depiction. The next year Henry's ally Władysław III Spindleshanks succeeded Leszek I as High Duke; however as he was still contested by his nephew in Greater Poland, he made Henry his governor at Kraków, whereby the Silesian duke once again became entangled in the dispute over the Seniorate Province. In 1229 he was captured and arrested at Płock Castle by rivaling Duke Konrad I of Masovia. Hedwig proceeded to Płock pleading for Henry and was able to have him released.

Her actions promoted the reign of her husband: upon the death of the Polish High Duke Władysław III Spindleshanks in 1231, Henry also became Duke of Greater Poland and the next year prevailed as High Duke at Kraków. He thereby was the first of the Silesian Piast descendants of Władysław II the Exile to gain the rule over Silesia and the Seniorate Province in accord with the 1138 Testament of Bolesław III Krzywousty.

Widow
Stained glass at St.Servatiuskirche LandkernUpon his death in 1238, Henry was buried at a Cistercian monastery of nuns, Trzebnica Abbey (Kloster Trebnitz), which he had established in 1202 at Hedwig's request. Hedwig accepted the death of her beloved husband with faith. She said:[6] "Would you oppose the will of God? Our lives are His."

The widow moved into the monastery, which was led by her daughter Gertrude, assuming the religious habit of a lay sister, but she did not take vows. She invited numerous German religious people from the Holy Roman Empire into the Silesian lands, as well as German settlers who founded numerous cities, towns and villages in the course of the Ostsiedlung, while cultivating barren parts of Silesia for agriculture.

Hedwig and Henry had several daughters, though only one surviving son, Henry II the Pious, who succeeded his father as Duke of Silesia and Polish High Duke. The widow, however, had to witness the killing of her son, vainly awaiting the support of Emperor Frederick II, during the Mongol invasion of Poland at the Battle of Legnica (Wahlstatt) in 1241. The hopes for a re-united Poland were lost, and even Silesia fragmented into numerous Piast duchies under Henry II's sons. Hedwig and her daughter-in-law, Henry II's widow Anna of Bohemia, established a Benedictine abbey at the site of the battle in Legnickie Pole, settled with monks coming from Opatovice in Bohemia.

Hedwig and Henry had lived very pious lives, and Hedwig had great zeal for her faith. She had supported her husband in donating the Augustinian provostry at Nowogród Bobrzański (Naumburg) and the commandery of the Knights Templar at Oleśnica Mała (Klein Oels). Hedwig always helped the poor, the widows and the orphans, founded several hospitals for the sick and the lepers and donated all her fortune to the Church. She allowed no one to leave her uncomforted, and one time she spent ten weeks teaching the Our Father to a poor woman. According to legend, she went barefoot even in winter, and when she was urged by the Bishop of Wrocław to wear shoes, she carried them in her hands.[6] On 15 October 1243, Hedwig died and was buried in Trzebnica Abbey with her husband, while relics of her are preserved at Andechs Abbey and St. Hedwig's Cathedral in Berlin.

Veneration
Hedwig was canonized in 1267 by Pope Clement IV, a supporter of the Cistercian order, at the suggestion of her grandson Prince-Archbishop Władysław of Salzburg. She is the patroness saint of Silesia, of Andechs, and of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Wrocław and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Görlitz. Her feast day is celebrated on the General Roman Calendar on 16 October. The Order of Saint Paul the First Hermit, who count her as a great benefactor, celebrate it on 8 June.[7] A 17th-century legend has it that Hedwig, while on a pilgrimage to Rome, stopped at Bad Zell in Austria, where she had healing waters spring up at a source which today still bears her name.

In 1773 the Prussian king Frederick the Great, having conquered and annexed the bulk of Silesia in the First Silesian War, had St. Hedwig in Berlin built for the Catholic Upper Silesian immigrants, since 1930 the cathedral of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Berlin. After the expulsion of almost all Germans from Silesia, German Silesians carried Hedwig's veneration to all over remaining Germany.[8]

In March 2020 the discovery of Hedwig's remains, that had been missing for centuries, was reported. The remains were found in her sanctuary in Trzebnica, in a silver casket bearing a lead tablet with an inscription confirming Hedwig's identity.[9]

Content Provided by Wikipedia ~ Saint Hedwig
Who is Saint John Berchmans?
John Berchmans, SJ (Dutch: Jan Berchmans [jɑm ˈbɛr(ə)xmɑns]; 13 March 1599 – 13 August 1621) was a Jesuit scholastic and is revered as a saint in the Catholic Church.

In 1615, the Jesuits opened a college at Mechelen, Belgium and Berchmans was one of the first to enroll. His spiritual model was his fellow Jesuit Aloysius Gonzaga, and he was influenced by the example of the English Jesuit martyrs. Berchmans is the patron saint of altar servers, Jesuit scholastics, and students.

Early life
John Berchmans was born on 13 March 1599, in the city of Diest situated in what is now the Belgian province of Flemish Brabant, the son of a shoemaker. His parents were John Charles and Elizabeth Berchmans. He was the oldest of five children and at baptism was named John in honor of John the Baptist. He grew up in an atmosphere of political turmoil caused by a religious war between the Catholic and Protestant parts of the Low Countries.[1] When he was age nine, his mother was stricken with a very long and a very serious illness. John would pass several hours each day by her bedside.[2] He studied at the Gymnasium (grammar school) at Diest and worked as a servant in the household of Canon John Froymont at Mechelen in order to continue his studies.[1] John also made pilgrimages to the Marian shrine of Scherpenheuvel, some 30 miles east of Brussels, but only few miles from Diest

Call to the Society of Jesus
In 1615, the Jesuits opened a college at Mechelen and Berchmans was one of the first to enroll. Immediately upon entering, he enrolled in the Sodality of the Blessed Virgin. When Berchmans wrote his parents that he wished to join the Society of Jesus, his father hurried to Mechelen to dissuade him and sent him to the Franciscan convent in Mechelen. At the convent, a friar who was related to Berchmans also attempted to change his mind. Finally as a last resort, Berchmans's father told him that he would end all financial support if he continued with his plan.[3]

Nevertheless, on 24 September 1616, Berchmans entered the Jesuit novitiate. He was affable, kind, and endowed with an outgoing personality that endeared him to others. He requested that after ordination as a priest he could become a chaplain in the army, hoping to be martyred on the battlefield.[1]

On 24 January 1618, he made his first vows and went to Antwerp to begin studying philosophy. After only a few weeks he was sent to Rome, where he was to continue the same study. He set out on foot, with his belongings on his back, and on arrival was admitted to the Roman College to begin two years of study. He entered his third-year class in philosophy in the year 1621.[2]

Later, in August 1621, the prefect of studies selected Berchmans to participate in a discussion of philosophy at the Greek College, which at the time was administered by the Dominicans. Berchmans opened the discussion with great clarity and profoundness, but after returning to his own quarters, was seized with the Roman fever.[2] His lungs became inflamed and his strength diminished rapidly.[3] He succumbed to dysentery and fever on 13 August 1621, at the age of twenty-two years and five months.[4] When he died, a large crowd gathered for several days to view his remains and to invoke his intercession. That same year, Phillip-Charles, Duke of Aarschot, sent a petition to Pope Gregory XV with a view to beginning the process leading to Berchman's beatification. His remains were eventually entombed in Rome's Sant'Ignazio Church.

Spirituality
Berchmans took as his spiritual model his fellow Jesuit Aloysius Gonzaga and was also influenced by the example of the English Jesuit martyrs. It was his realistic appreciation for the value of ordinary things, a characteristic of the Flemish mystical tradition, that constituted his holiness. He had a special devotion to Mary, mother of Jesus, and to him is owed the Little Rosary of the Immaculate Conception.[3]

Veneration
At the time of Berchmans's death, his heart was returned to his homeland in Belgium where it is kept in a silver reliquary on a side altar in the church at Leuven (Louvain).[5] Berchmans was declared Blessed in 1865, and canonized in 1888.[2] Statues frequently depict him with hands clasped, holding his crucifix, his book of rules, and his rosary.
The miracle that led to his canonization occurred at the Academy of the Sacred Heart in Grand Coteau, Louisiana. In 1866, one year after the Civil War, he appeared to novice Mary Wilson. Mary's health was poor, and her parents thought that the gentler climate of south Louisiana could be a remedy. However, her health continued to decline, to the point where for about 40 days she had only been able to take liquids. "Being unable to speak, I said in my heart: 'Lord, Thou Who seest how I suffer, if it be for your honor and glory and the salvation of my soul, I ask through the intercession of Blessed Berchmans a little relief and health. Otherwise give me patience to the end.'" She went on to describe how John Berchmans then appeared to her, and she was immediately healed.[6] When the Academy opened a boys school in 2006, the trustees named it St. John Berchmans School. It is the only shrine at the exact location of a confirmed miracle in the United States.[7]

The feast day of John Berchmans has never been inscribed in the General Roman Calendar, but prior to the liturgical reforms of Pope John XXIII there was a Mass set for him among the section of Masses for Various Places (Missae pro aliquibus locis) of the Roman Missal which foresaw that it would be celebrated in different places on either 13 August or 26 November. Berchmans is currently inscribed in the 2004 official edition of the Catholic Church's Martyrologium Romanum (p. 451) on 13 August, the date of his death. He is celebrated by the Society of Jesus on 26 November.

Content Provided by Wikipedia  ~ Saint John Berchmans