In 1899 Bishop of Hartford Michael Tierney, assigned Rev. Joseph Sulkowski to the newly formed Polish parish, consisting of approximately 1,000 Polish immigrants in Bridgeport's multi-ethnic East Side.
Father Becker died in 1906 and the parish was placed under the Conventual Franciscans of the Polish-American Province of St. Anthony and the Franciscans became responsible for finding new priests appropriate for the Polish American parish [REF].