The new parish grew so rapidly that already on July 28, 1890, he began the construction of the present cathedral-like church. Tensions between his followers who were called “Kolachy” (the Kolasinskians) and the “Dombruchy” (the Dombrovites) who were the followers of Father Joseph Dombrowski, the founder of the Polish Seminary who had succeeded Father Kolasinski at St. Albertus, continued in their fervid intensity. In fact, on Christmas Eve of 1891, young Joseph Bolda, 19, a Dombrovite, was killed in an altercation between Kolasinskians and Dombrovites.

On June 5, 1892, a cornerstone-laying ceremony presided over by a “bishop” of dubious antecedents took place. On December 24, 1893, Christmas Eve, the church was officially dedicated with great pomp and circumstance by a so­called Old Catholic bishop, Joseph Rene Vilatte, with more than 10,000 people in attendance. The great church, designed by the architectural firm of Spier and Rohns, was hailed as one of the most beautiful Gothic structures in the State of Michigan and as the largest and grandest Polish church in the United States.