Poland, a nation of saints

A white eagle emblazoned upon a red shield in Poland’s coat of arms refers to a legend of Poland’s origins. It involves three Slavic brothers — named Lech, Czech, and Rus — who went off hunting in different directions following different prey. 

According to this legend, Lech traveled north into a forest, where he came upon a nest guarded by a fierce white eagle. He founded a settlement there and called it Gniezno (“nest”). His brothers, going in other directions, founded other Slavic nations. Gniezno remains the name of one of Poland’s great cities.

Today, Polish Catholics, like the white eagle, continue fiercely to defend their Catholic faith — a heritage that dates in history to the reign of Duke Mieszko I, who was baptized on Holy Saturday in 966, probably in Poznań, and established Poland as a Catholic nation, with borders very close to those of modern Poland. 

At that time in Europe, a nation would receive faith through the baptism of its ruler, and afterward the nation would be evangelized. It was also a strategic decision giving a country international recognition and independence from neighboring countries. 

Legatus members and guests will have an opportunity to experience firsthand the powerful Catholic faith and history of Poland this year during a 10-day pilgrimage there this spring (see sidebar).

‘CITY OF SAINTS’

Kraków is the city that draws the most attention and interest worldwide. The first settlement dates to the Stone Age, and here are found alleged seventh-century burial mounds of city founders Krakus and Wanda. Pope Sylvester II established the first Polish dioceses in both Kraków and Gniezno in 1000. 

Just as in the early Church, the faith in Polish lands grew on the blood of martyrs. St. Wojciech, or Adalbert, a Czech Benedictine bishop martyred by Prussian pagans, is buried in the Gniezno Cathedral, and the remains of St. Stanisław of Szczepanów, killed by King Bolesław II the Brave in retaliation for having been excommunicated, are in Wawel Cathedral in Kraków. His death helped the Catholic faith flourish throughout the city, which has come to be called the “City of Saints.”

Kraków produced many saints, including two Polish queens, St. Kinga and St. Jadwiga (Hedwig). Kinga aided efforts to discover salt in the region in the 13th century, and today Wieliczka remains a famous salt mine — and Kinga is a patron saint of miners. A century later, Jadwiga married Grand Duke Władysław Jagiełło of Lithuania in order to convert Lithuania to Catholicism, creating a long Polish-Lithuanian alliance. He became king of Poland upon Jadwiga’s death in 1399.

In the 19th century lived St. Albert Chmielowski, an aristocrat and disabled veteran who founded the Albertine Fathers and Sisters, served the poor and homeless, and painted the suffering Christ in his Ecce Homo. Another with ties to Kraków is St. Faustina Kowalska, who was formed there and later died at a monastery in its Łagiewniki neighborhood. In 2002, Pope John Paul II, who used to stop and pray there on his way to his factory job in his youth, dedicated the Basilica Shrine of Divine Mercy on that site.

Another well-known saint is St. Maximilian Kolbe, the Conventual Franciscan who offered his own life to spare that of another prisoner at Auschwitz. He taught at the Kraków Seminary early in his priesthood.

WELLSPRING OF FAITH

Faith also grew in the Kraków diocese thanks to religious orders such as the Benedictines. They founded Tyniec Abbey, situated on the cliffs overlooking the Vistula River, in the mid-11th century. The Benedictine monastery at Kalwaria Zebrzydowska, built in the early 17th century, is a focal point for Dróżki Kalwarysjkie, a five-mile Way of the Cross created to resemble biblical Jerusalem. The father of Karol Wojtyła, the future Pope St. John Paul II, brought his 9-year-old son here to dedicate him to Our Lady of Kalwaria after the death of Karol’s mother. 

Polish Catholics have long had a strong devotion to the Virgin Mary. At its heart is the Shrine of Our Lady of Jasna Góra, the “Black Madonna,” in Czestochowa. As Pope John Paul said here in 1979, “One must listen in this holy place in order to hear the beating of the heart of the nation in the heart of the Mother.” A key battle in the Siege of Jasna Góra took place here in 1655, when the Polish Army beat back Swedish forces that tried to capture the monastery. 

Another famous battle was the Miracle on the Vistula in 1920, when the badly outnumbered Polish Army defeated the Red Army during the Polish-Soviet War — reportedly aided by a powerful prayer campaign and a heavenly apparition of Our Lady on the vigil of the Feast of the Assumption.

It was from this fertile Catholic land that Archbishop Karol Wojtyla of Kraków emerged to serve as Pope John Paul II from 1978 until his death in 2005. Among his many accomplishments for Poland and the world is his influence in the collapse of Soviet communism — a process that many Polish Catholics believe started with his prayerful plea “as a son of the land of Poland” at the end of his homily at a Mass in Warsaw during his first visit to his homeland as pope:

“Let your Spirit descend. Let your Spirit descend and renew the face of the earth, 
the face of this land.”

A PILGRIMAGE OF MERCY

“Poland: The Path to Divine Mercy” is the title and theme of a 10-day Legatus pilgrimage managed by Corporate Travel May 28-June 6, 2024.

Pilgrims will fly to Kraków for a five-night hotel stay, from which they will visit Czestochowa, Auschwitz, Wadowice, Wieliczka, Tyniec Abbey, Kalwaria, and the Divine Mercy Center among other sites. They will then travel for a three-night stay in Zakopane, where they will take in the beautiful mountain views and have opportunities for gondola and raft adventures while enjoying Mt. Globowka, the Dunajec River, and the Pieniny Gorge. 

As always, this pilgrimage will include daily Masses and visits to sacred sites along the way as well as first-class dining and accommodations. Details and reservations are available on the Legatus website.