Along with the Hindu Temple of Greater Chicago, it is one of the two monumental religious edifices that dominate the Lemont skyline.

Poles are noted in the Lemont area as early as 1860 working in the local quarries.

The surrounding area was called Jasna Góra, in reverence to the shrine of the Black Madonna in Poland.

They evangelized to the Slavic peoples, translated the liturgy into Slavonic and made numerous converts.

In the Roman Catholic Church they are also jointly revered as Apostles to the Slavs and their cult was further glorified in 1980 when Pope John Paul II declared them the patron saints of Europe.