St. Michael Church 
4821 S. Damen Avenue

If you don't live in St. Michael Parish near Chicago's Back of the Yards area, you have no idea how much life there is here. The combination church-school edifice, built in 1909, was the first Slovak church in the archdiocese. Its immigrant history has continued in recent decades with newly arrived Hispanic families. And family is what it's all about-90 baptisms last year; 10 funerals. Neighborhood youth are nurtured here through athletic programs in its social center, coupled with caring pastoral guidance. Count on participation for street fairs, mariachi Masses or religious concerts, as well as at eucharistic adoration or novenas to Our Lady of Guadalupe.Its parishioners are hard workers and have an extraordinary faith, praised recently by Cardinal George on a visit to St. Michael's. A new evening-of-prayer tradition in January recalls the parishoners' saga of immigration seen through the New Testament story of the Holy Family's flight into Egypt.