We were so happy that Mom was here to accompany us on our pilgrimage to Poland over fall break the last week of October! Ever since attending St. Pope John Paul II's canonization in the spring, we have been hoping to go visit his country, and see his places and his legacy. And so, on Saturday morning, we hopped in our rental car and drove 6 hours to Wadowice, John Paul II's birth town. Well, not quite "hopped" with our two little rascals, but we had a pretty smooth ride.
Church of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary; the Wojtyla home is directly to the right. You can imagine how many times little Karol entered the church here!
The baptismal font where John Paul was baptized.
Powerful picture. This holy man praying at the spot where he received his faith, his calling, his strength, his destiny, both on earth and heaven. We enjoyed a nice tour of his family's home, and saw some items belonging to him.
Then we found a cafe and tried some of the famous kremowka papieska "pope cakes", a Polish cream cake that was John Paul II's favorite, and so was renamed for him.
Delicious!
Next, we drove 20 minutes down the road to Kalwaria Zebrzydowska, which
is home to a large Franciscan monastery and pilgrimage site. In 1600, a
Calvary sanctuary was erected here, to give pilgrims a substitute for
Jerusalem, which was held by the Turks at that time. Since then, it has
been a place of pilgrimage, and John Paul's favorite place to visit. The
grounds are very extensive with the Stations of the Cross and of Mary,
and many chapels.
The main sanctuary.
In a side chapel hangs the miraculous icon of Our Lady of Kalwaria, which has shed tears.
Sunday morning, we attended Mass at St. Mary's Basilica, celebrated by the bishop of Krakow. A nice Polish men's choir sang and the organ was quite magnificent. Such a stunning church.
Ahh, just LOVE this church!
Where shall we go next in this fog? It was quite cold. Coffee breaks were a popular thing on this trip. And hot chocolate. Oh the hot chocolate in Poland is something else, top quality. We even had a favorite gas station hot chocolate!
The Cloth Market, which is a long hallway filled with vendors of local and regional handmade crafts, religious items, pottery, toys, and knickknacks.
Having fun with these movable letters.
Some snapshots from the Jewish quarter; many of these buildings were in the movie, Schindler's List.
Memorial for the many thousands of Polish Jews that were killed in the Holocaust.
The square of Krakow's ghetto, now hosts this empty chair memorial, obviously symbolic.
Hard to imagine all the terror that occurred here.
Another foggy day in Krakow, visiting Wawel Castle. We toured the church and the armory and treasury exhibits.
Interior courtyard.
All bundled up!
The sun came out that afternoon a bit!
Waiting for some delicious authentic Polish food. We tried 4 soups and beer. Yum.
Girls' evening out.
Chocolate and caffeine treats!
Modeling Auntie Elizabeth's boots!
We always had blue skies once we left Krakow! Here we are touching up
after a 2 hour drive to Czestohowa to visit the Jasna Gora monastery, which was founded in 1382 by Hungarian Monks and contains the
famous icon of the Blessed Virgin Mary holding the Christ Child called
The Black Madonna of Czestochowa.
St. Michael!
The lower chapel houses the miraculous icon of Our Lady of
So beautiful, timeless, maternal, queenly, engaging. So many prayers hastened upwards from our hearts.
The walls behind the altar are covered with thanksgiving plaques.
The "veil" was lowered for the noon hour to a trumpet and organ fanfare.
Her Son, given for us.
We explored the grounds and visited the monastery's treasury.
This image you will see all over Poland.
A boy and his Nana.
It was late when we got back to Krakow, but we swung by the Divine Mercy shrine to venerate St. Faustina's relic and pray in front of the 2nd copy of this most beautiful painting of our Lord. Jesus, I trust in You.
Our last day trip from Krakow was to the Auschwitz and Birkenau concentration camps. Growing up, we were exposed many times to books and movies that depicted this tragic period of history. Quite another thing to stand on the grounds where it occurred. We took a 3 hour tour of many of the buildings which now house exhibits, pictures, facts and what artifacts remain from this camp.
It was a moving moment to walk through the gates, and under this infamous sign of Auschwitz - "Arbeit macht frei" (Work makes you free).
Blue skies, neatly whitewashed heated buildings, green grass - so different from back then.
Block 11, where St. Maximilian Kolbe spent his last days.
The cell where St. Maximilian Kolbe died of starvation after offering his life in place of another, who lived to survive the camp and return to his family. Pray for us.
"Dawn came on us like a betrayer; it seemed as though the new sun rose as an ally of our enemies to assist in our destruction...Then for the first time we became aware that our language lacks words to express this offence, the demolition of a man. In a moment, with almost prophetic intuition, the reality was revealed to us: we had reached the bottom...Nothing belonged to us anymore; they have taken away our clothes, our shoes, even our hair; they will even take away our name."
Primo Levi, Auschwitz survivor
No words are necessary.
We entered the gas chamber...
It was good to have the smiles of children around this former place of horror and death. A reminder that God does bring good out of evil, that man will never have the last word, that life is a gift from God to be protected and cherished. But also reminded me of so many little smiles that were never again seen outside these fences...
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Then we drove 5 minutes down the road to the Birkenau death camp. This is where those who were to be exterminated stayed until they entered the gas chamber.
This camp was HUGE. Many of the buildings had been burned by the Nazis in an effort to hide the mass killing, but the chimney stacks of each bunk house remain. The estimated number of victims from this camp is 2-2.5 million, although that is the historians' minimum number - the probable total is 4 million.
God have mercy on all the souls involved here.
On our last morning in Krakow, the sun FINALLY came out! We had planned to visit a salt mine, but couldn't pass up a sunny morning in Krakow, so spent most of the day walking around, shopping for souvenirs, and visiting a few more churches. First we attended Mass in the Franciscan church.
Look at the walls behind the confessional - the entire church interior was comprised of similar painted patterns.
One of the original city gates, St. Florian's gate.
The Dominican church.
A nice statue of the Trinity is above the altar.
Out a side door, was the cloister courtyard which is open to the public and contains many old frescos, memorial plaques and paintings of Dominican saints.
St. Raymond of Penefort, famous for the miracle of using his cloak as a sailboat to reach another town to preach.
Hmm, will have to look up the story behind these Dominican martyrs... any ideas, Dad?
Waiting for Mama and Nana to decide on some Polish pottery.
The university that John Paul II attended.
We were almost attacked by pigeons!
Inside the cloth market, where one can find anything from leather goods, to toys, to icons, to babushkas and handmade chess sets.
Krakow, God willing, we will see you again for World Youth Day 2016!!
