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Kalwaria Zebrzydowska and Wadowice

Kalwaria Zebrzydowska and Wadowice

September 2022 · 7 min read · Wadowice County

I wrote this post in English and Slovak language.

We leave Krakow in the morning. We are still enjoying the morning atmosphere of the city, we pass by the historic center by bus and follow in the footsteps of Pope John Paul II. or Karol Wojtyla if you want. That's probably how I would characterize this trip.

Our bus is heading to the first stop. We climb up the hill to a place called Kalvaria Zebrzydowska.

It is one of the most famous pilgrimage sites in Poland, it is also called the Polish Jerusalem. There are symbolic places of worship related to the life and suffering of Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary. It was built at the beginning of the 17th century and has practically not changed until today. It was started to be built by Mikolaj Zebrzydowski – Duke of Krakow, and the allocation of chapels, city buildings of Jerusalem to the Polish natural landscape was the work of the prominent astronomer, mathematician, surveyor Feliks Żebrowski. The monastery complex is the seat of the Bernardine order. It has been on the UNESCO list since 1999.

And how is this place connected to Pope John Paul II? The Calvary Sanctuary was visited by Pope John Paul II. in 1979 and 2002 and in 2006 even his successor Benedict XVI.

    

Pope John Paul II was in this room. accommodated when visiting Kalwaria Zebrzydowska.

    

Madonna and Child

   

The painting is a copy of a painting from the parish church in Myślenice. It depicts the Mother of God with the Child and represents the iconographic type of Eleusis, created in the rite of Byzantine culture.

On May 3, 1641, bloody tears appeared on the painting. The owner ordered the painting to be transferred to the parish church in Marcyporęba. It is said that when he was carrying him to Marcyporęba, a mysterious force directed his steps towards the newly built church and monastery of the Bernardine Fathers on Calvary. Soon, miracles began to happen near the image and crowds of believers visited the church. He was consecrated on August 15, 1887.

The tour of the calvary, after which one of the monks willingly accompanied us, is over and after a short break we continue on our way. It's a pity that we don't have more time, it would definitely be worth going around the calvary all the way around and going through all the stops and chapels.

However, we continue to the next place, which is named after Pope John Paul II. connected I guess even more. It is his hometown, the city of Wadowice.

This territory has been permanently inhabited since the end of the 10th century. It experienced its greatest boom in the 16th and 17th centuries. It became the center of crafts and trade of the local region.

And now to the matter of. In 1920, a boy was born here, whom his parents named Karol, after his father, former Habsburg army officer Karol Wojtylow. He studied well from an early age and thanks to that he got into the Jagiellonian University in Krakow. World War II interrupted his efforts and prevented him from continuing his studies. He started work and secretly tried to help Polish Jews among other activities.

In 1943, Karow Wojtyla decided to study theology and entered the secret Metropolitan Spiritual Seminary. He was ordained a priest in 1946 and already in 1958 he was ordained a bishop in the Wawel Cathedral in Krakow. It didn't take long and in 1967 the Pope appointed him a cardinal.

In 1978, Karol Wojtyla participated in the conclave where they elected John Paul I as Pope. At that time, no one expected that he would die after 33 days in office, and Cardinal Karol Wojtyla traveled to the second conclave in a short time. Support in the second conclave was divided between the two cardinals. Giuseppe Cardinal Siri, Archbishop of Genoa and Giovanni Cardinal Benelli, Archbishop of Florence. However, in the end, they chose Karol Wojtyla as the pope, as a compromise between these candidates. The new pope took the name John Paul II. He was the first non-Italian pope since 1522 and the first ever Slavic pope.

During his pontificate, he made more than 100 foreign trips. He traveled more of these roads than all his predecessors put together. He beatified and canonized more people than any pope before him. He tried to unite people and nations.

Pope John Paul II. died after a serious illness in 2005.

We leave Wadowice with peace in our hearts. A little tired, but satisfied with the knowledge we gained and what we saw in these two places.

Well thank you.

Po Slovensky

Z Krakowa odchádzame hneď ráno. Ešte si vychutnávame rannú atmosféru mesta, autobusom prechádzame okolo historického centra a smerujeme po stopách pápeža Jána Pavla II. alebo Karola Wojtylu ak chcete. Asi tak by som tento výlet charakterizoval.

Náš autobus mieri na prvú zastávku. Stúpame hore kopcom na miesto zvané Kalvaria Zebrzydowska.

Je to jedno z najznámejších pútnických miest Poľska, nazýva sa aj Poľský Jeruzalem. Nachádzajú sa tu symbolické uctievané miesta týkajúce sa života a utrpenia Ježiša Krista a Panny Márie. Vybudovaný bol začiatkom 17. storočia a do dnešných čias sa prakticky nezmenil. Budovať ju začal Mikolaj Zebrzydowski – Krakowský vojvoda a alokovanie kaplniek, mestských budov Jeruzalema do Poľskej prírodnej krajiny bolo dielom významného astronóma, matematika, geodeta Feliksa Żebrowski. Kláštorný komplex je sídlom rádu bernardínov. Od roku 1999 je zapísaná na zozname UNESCO.

A ako je toto miesto spojené s pápežom Jánom Pavlom II.? Kalvarijské sanktuárium navštívil pápež Ján Pavol II. v rokoch 1979 a 2002 a v roku 2006 dokonca aj jeho nástupca Benedikt XVI.

   

V tejto izbe bol pápež Ján Pavol II. ubytovaný pri návšteve Kalwarie Zebrzydowskej.

Madona s Dieťaťom

   

Maľba je kópiou obrazu z farského kostola v Myśleniciach. Znázorňuje Matku Božiu s Dieťaťom a reprezentuje ikonografický typ Eleusy, vytvorený v obrade byzantskej kultúry.
3. Mája 1641 sa na obraze zjavili krvavé slzy. Majiteľ nariadil preniesť obraz do farského kostola v Marcyporębe. Traduje sa, že keď ho niesol do Marcyporęby, tajomná sila nasmerovala jeho kroky smerom k novopostavenému kostolu a kláštoru otcov bernardínov na Kalvárii. Zakrátko sa pri obraze začali diať zázraky a zástupy veriacich navštevovali kostol. Posvätený bol 15. augusta 1887.

Prehliadku kalvárie po ktorej nás ochotne sprevádzal jeden z mníchov máme za sebou a po krátkej prestávke pokračujeme ďalej v ceste. Škoda, že nemáme viac času, určite by stálo za to obehnúť si kalváriu celú dookola a prejsť všetkými zastávkami a kaplnkami.

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My však pokračujeme na ďalšie miesto, ktoré je s menom pápeža Jána Pavla II. spájané hádam ešte viac. Je to jeho rodné mesto, mesto Wadowice.

Toto územie bolo trvalo osídlené už od konca 10. storočia. Najväčší rozmach zažilo v 16. a 17. storočí. Stalo sa centrom remesiel a obchodu miestneho regiónu.

A teraz k veci. V roku 1920 sa tu narodil chlapec, ktorému dali jeho rodičia meno Karol, po svojom otcovi, bývalom dôstojníkovi habsburskej armády Karolovi Wojtylowi. Už od mala sa dobre učil a vďaka tomu sa dostal na Jagelonskú univerzitu v Krakowe. Druhá svetová vojna prerušila jeho úsilie a zabránila mu pokračovať v štúdiách. Nastúpil do práce a tajne sa snažil okrem iných činností pomáhať poľským Židom.

V roku 1943 sa Karow Wojtyla rozhodol študovať teológiu a vstúpil do tajného Metropolitného duchovného seminára. Za kňaza bol vysvätený v roku 1946 a už v roku 1958 ho vo Wawelskej katedrále v Krakowe vysvätili za biskupa. Netrvalo dlho a v roku 1967 ho pápež vymenoval za kardinála.

V roku 1978 sa Karol Wojtyla zúčastnil konkláve kde zvolili za pápeža Jána Pavla I. V tom čase nikto nepredpokladal, že po 33 dňoch vo funkcii zomrie a kardinál Karol Wojtyla cestoval na druhé konkláve v krátkej dobe. Podpora v druhom konkláve bola rozdelená medzi dvoch kardinálov. Giuseppe kardinála Siriho, janovského arcibiskupa a Giovanni kardinála Benelliho, florentského arcibiskupa. Nakoniec však za pápeža zvolili Karola Wojtylu, ako kompromis medzi týmito kanditátmi. Nový pápež prijal meno Ján Pavol II. Bol to prvý netaliansky pápež od roku 1522 a vôbec prvý slovanský pápež.

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Počas svojho pontifikátu uskutočnil viac ako 100 zahraničných ciest. Týmito cestami prešiel viac ako všetci jeho predchodcovia dohromady. Blahorečil a kanonizoval viac ľudí, ako ktorýkoľvek pápež pred ním. Snažil sa spájať ľudí a národy.

Pápež Ján Pavol II. zomrel po ťažkej chorobe v roku 2005.

Wadowice opúšťame s pokojom v srdci. Trochu unavení, no spokojní a poznatkami, ktoré sme získali a s tým, čo sme na týchto dvoch miestach videli.

Ďakujem.

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