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| Pilgrimages |
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CZESTOCHOWA |
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Jasna Gora Monastery is the best known place for pilgrimage in Poland. In 1292, prince Ladislaus Opolski invited Paulinites from Hungary to Czestochowa. They established a monastery at Jasna Gora. Thanks to the generous patronage of the kings and pilgrims in the 17th century the monastery was fortified. Mary of Czestochowa has been proclaimed Queen of Poland by the king Jan Kazimierz (1659) as the defense of Jasna Gora Monastery played major role in stopping Swedish flood Across Poland and Europe. Since then it has been a
world - famous pilgrimage center hosting today almost five million visitors annually.In 1930 Karol Wojtyla came here with his father and prayed to the Black Madonna for the first time. He was deeply moved and returned on a school trip in the summer of 1932. Since than he often came on pilgrimage here. Being a Pope he visited Jasna Gora six times. In 1991 youth from all over the world gathered here for their meeting with Jan Paul II. |
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Jasna Gora's most valuable treasure is the miraculous painting Of Our Lady, called also Black Madonna. The painting is the mystery, the fulchrum, the atmosphere of the Jasna Gora. |
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LICHEN |
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In 1967, in the presence of more than 150,000belivers, The Our Lady of Lichen Picture ( the miraculous icon depicts the Virgin Mary with a white Eagle on her
breast) received the crown of the Pope Paul VI. The crown celebration was headed by the Primate of Poland, Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski , who thanked on the occasion the Our Lady of Lichen for miraculous healing of his tuberculosis. Until the present day, the place has been visited by more than million people a year. Heavy drinkers are particularly helped by Our Lady of Lichen. Pope John Paul II blessed the new shrine of Our Lady of Sorrow in the small village of Lichen
during the last visit to his homeland in June 1999.The biggest church in Europe is currently under construction. |
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LUDZMIERZ |
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Sanctuary of Ludzmierz with its magnificiant icon of the Virgin, the Queen of Podhale, is the best known in the south part of Poland. In 1963 during the
crowning ceremony, as the feretory bearing the figure was being carried, the scepter fell from its hands. It was caught in mid-air by then the Bishop of Krakow, Karol Wojtyla, who years later went on to become Pope. |
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NIEPOKALANOW |
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Niepokalanow is the name of the Franciscan Friary situated in the municipality of Teresin. At the beginning in 1927, it occupied a very small area of land donated by Prince John Drucki Lubecki.After some time , the Prince, seeing the rapid development of the new Friary and Print Shop, offered more of his fields to Niepokalanow. |
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In this location one finds a parochial church (named a Basilica on April 30,1983 ), some large buildings housing more than 200 Friars, print
shop. A Minor Seminary for Franciscan candidates and guest houses for pilgrims. The pilgrimage of John Paul II to
Niepokalanow (June 18,1983). Made this Friary known throughout the world, so it has become like Jasna Gora an international Shrine. One of the reason is the cult of its founder, St. Maximilian Kolbe,who arrested and and sent to the concentration camp in Auschwitz died as a hero, offering his life for another prisoner - the father of a family. |
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WAMBIERZYCE |
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It is the small town situated among three hills in the stream Valley Cedron, at the
foot of Stolowe Mountains. We can find here Baroque Basilica with the figure of the Queen of Families from XIII centuary. This sanctuary is also called Lower Silesian Jerusalem. |
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KALWARIA ZEBRZYDOWSKA |
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The sanctuary of Christ's Passion and Blessed Mary was built in XVII century according to the model of Golgotha in Jerusalem.It is a place of picturesque beauty, where numerous chapels are set into the hilly
countryside. You stop here to visit the oldest and most famous Way of the Cross in Poland, where the estimate one million pilgrims are coming annually to pray. In 1929, when Karol Wojtyla mother died, his father took him to Kalwaria. Wojtyla's lifelong devotion to the Virgin began on that trip. Pope John Paul II visiting the Sanctuary in 1979 granted the main churche the title of "Basilica". In 1987, praying before the shrine he
offered Our Lady a golden Papal rose as a "sign
on gratitude for what she had been and is in his life". Close the Bernardine Monastery is located
"Kalwary Paths", a favourite trail of Karol Wojtyla. |
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