Wersja polska

In 1976, Cardinal Karol Wojtyła - then Archbishop of Kraków and later Pope John Paul II - visited Washington, DC. During this visit, he explored the possibility of establishing a Polish Catholic Mission to serve the growing Polish community attending Polish-language Masses at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.

His personal initiative, expressed in a letter to Cardinal William Baum, then Archbishop of Washington, led to the establishment of the Polish Roman Catholic Mission dedicated to Our Lady Queen of Poland and Saint Maximilian Kolbe. The mission was located at the historic Church of Saint John the Evangelist in Silver Spring.

In 1983, Archbishop James Hickey (later Cardinal), Cardinal Baum's successor, elevated the mission to the status of a parish. Since its founding, the mission and parish have been administered by the Society of Christ, an order established in 1932 by Cardinal August Hlond, Primate of Poland, to provide pastoral care for Polish communities around the world.

Pastors of the parish have included Fr. Józef Smyczyk, Fr. Edward Mroczyński, Fr. Tadeusz Winnicki, Fr. Zygmunt Ostrowski, Fr. Krzysztof Oska, Fr. Stanisław Hijakowski, Fr. Klemens Dąbrowski (until October 16, 2007), Fr. Jan Fiedurek (until August 30, 2015), and Fr. Jerzy Frydrych (until August 27, 2026).

The current pastor is Fr. Waldemar Matusiak.