Pilgrimage to Poland in honour of St John Paul II, May 2016

Few popes in history have been as closely tied to the country of their birth as St John Paul II was to Poland. To honour the pope born Karol Wojty?a and explore his country before the world’s Catholic youth comes to Kraków next year, The Southern Cross will host a pilgrimage to Poland in May 2016, led by SA-based and Polish-born Bishop Stan Dziuba.

Pope St John Paul II was born as Karol Wojty?a on May 18, 1920 in the small town of Wadowice, near the historic Polish city of Kraków. He spent most of his life in Kraków — the city which will host World Youth Day in July 2016 — first as a student, seminarian and priest, then as archbishop and cardinal before his momentous election to the papacy in October 1978.

Poland’s history, culture and traditions are closely tied to the Catholic faith which most Poles were brought up in. It shows in the devotion to the Black Madonna of Cz?stochowa and other Marian shrines, and in the devotion Poles have to their saints, such as the martyr St Maximilian Kolbe.

The Southern Cross’ pilgrimage in honour of St John Paul II — from May 13-22, 2016 — will visit the places of the pope’s life and of his devotions. It will bring the pilgrims closer to Karol Wojty?a, the saint, and illuminate the power of the Catholic faith whose spirit could not be crushed  by four decades of aggressively atheistic and repressive communism.

The pilgrimage will be led by Bishop Stanislaw Dziuba of Umzimkulu. Bishop Dziuba (pictured right) who was born in 1960 near Cz?stochowa and is very familiar with the sites we will visit.

Bishop Dziuba’s knowledge and spiritual direction will be complemented by the expertise of local guides and a local tour director. Southern Cross editor Günther Simmermacher is also expected to join the pilgrimage, schedule permitting.

The group will meet on May 13, the feast of Our Lady of Fatima, at Johannesburg’s OR?Tambo International to make its way to Warsaw.

The pilgrims will have a tour of Poland’s capital city, but more important sites await. A highlight will be a visit to Wadowice, the birthplace of St John Paul — on his birthday!

Wadowice
Wadowice (pronounced vado-VEE-tse) is a small town of no great import, other than it being the birthplace of one of the giant personalities of the 20th century. Even today, it has fewer than 20000 inhabitants.

Had World War I ended differently, its most famous son might have been known as the Austrian pope: For a few centuries Wadowice was part of the Austro-Hungarian empire, which as a loser in the Great War, was dissolved after 1918.

So less than two years before the birth of Karol Józef Wojty?a, Wadowice became Polish again, reclaiming its historical name from the Austrian-given Frauenstadt. But even the Austrian name might be prescient: the town might very well have been named in honour of Our Lady, to whom St John Paul had such a profound devotion.

The pilgrims will see the Wojty?a family home, which includes a museum, and have Mass in the basilica of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Wadowice, where Karol Wojty?a was baptised.

Kraków
In mid-1938, Karol and his now-widowed father left Wadowice and moved to Kraków, where the 18-year-old enrolled at the Jagiellonian University. Soon after, in 1939, the university was closed by the Nazi occupiers.

Unable to study and hoping to escape deportation to Germany for forced labour, Karol worked as a labourer in Kraków until 1942, when he secretly entered the seminary.

Ordained in Kraków in 1946, he became the city’s auxiliary bishop in 1958 and its archbishop in 1964. Three years later, Pope Paul VI?named him a cardinal.

The pilgrims will enjoy an evening guided walk across the Old City of Kraków, seeing famous sights such as the Barbican, Market Square, Collegium Maius, Archbishop’s Palace, the window of John Paul II and so on. They will also  visit Wawel Castle and the Cathedral church, where the Polish kings are buried; and explore the Jewish Quarter, a place that is full of life, folklore and tradition.

There will also be a dinner in a restaurant where regional delicacies will be served.

Divine Mercy Sanctuary
Also in Kraków, in the district of ?agiewniki, is the place directly connected with the life of St Faustina Kowalska, whose locutions are at the basis of the Divine Mercy devotion. The Divine Mercy Sanctuary holds her tomb as well as the original of the famous Divine Mercy image by Adolf Hy?a.

The new basilica was built between 1999–2002, replacing the church built in 1966.

St John Paul called the sanctuary the “Capital of the Divine Mercy devotion”. In 2006 Pope Benedict XVI unveiled a statue of St John Paul, the seventh in Kraków, at the observation tower at the basilica.

Kalwaria Zebrzydowska
Saint John Paul II visited the sanctuary of Kalwaria Zebrzydowska (pronounced kal-VA-ria zed-dju-DOV-ska), the calvary monastery, many times.

The shrine goes back to 1602, when it was founded as a monastery modelled on Calvary in Jerusalem by order of Kraków’s ruler, Miko?aj Zebrzydowski.

The place became one of Poland’s most popular sites of pilgrimage when  in 1641 the icon of Our Lady of Calvary was reported to have shed tears. The owner presented it to the shrine to facilitate general devotion.

During the pilgrimage’s visit there will be time to pray in front of the icon.

Auschwitz-Birkenau
A pilgrimage to Poland must also acknowledge the evil that was done in the country during the Nazi occupation, which was nowhere as depraved as it was at the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp.

The pilgrimage’s particular interest will be in Block 13, where the martyr St Maximilian Kolbe was murdered by the Nazis, having volunteered to take the place of a family man who had been condemned to death.

Pilgrims with a sensitive disposition will be free to skip this visit.

Wieliczka Salt Mine
Wieliczka (pronounced vee-LEECH-ka) is within the Kraków metropolitan area. It is famous for its salt mines, which go back to the 13th century.

The mining operations ceased in 1996, but visitors come to see the dozens of statues and four chapels that have been carved out of the rock salt by the miners, which give it the title “Underground Salt Cathedral”.

The mines also feature an underground lake, 135 metres underground.

The group will have Mass in one of the chapels, surely one of the most unusual places they’ll ever have Mass.

Cz?stochowa
Apart from Kraków, the other centrepoint of the pilgrimage is Cz?stochowa (pronounced Tshen-sto-KHO-va), where the monastery of Jasna Góra (meaning Luminous Mount) is the home of the Black Madonna icon.

The Byzantine image has been in Poland for 600 years and gives the country its national and spiritual identity. Jasna Góra (pronounced Yasna GO-rah) is the most famous Polish shrine to Our Lady and Poland’s pilgrimage capital.

The pilgrims will have Holy Mass in front of the Black Madonna, and there will also be free time for prayer and contemplation in silence.

Of course the group will explore the Jasna Góra  sanctuary. They will see the monastery, founded in 1342 by the Order of Saint Paul the First Hermit, of whom our spiritual director, Bishop Dziuba, is a member.

The pilgrims will also visit the Treasury, the museum which holds votive gifts presented to Our Lady of Jasna Góra over the centuries, including by popes and kings.

Zakopane
Zakopane is where the outdoor enthusiast St John Paul loved to go to hike or ski in the Tatra Mountains. In this town the faithful built a beautiful wooden chapel dedicated to Our Lady of Fatima in thanks for her protection of the Pope during the 1981 assassination attempt.

In the sanctuary grounds there are two monuments of St John Paul and the altar on which he celebrated Mass in Zakopane.

Niepokalanów
On the other side of Poland, and one of the first sites the pilgrimage will visit, is Niepokalanów (pronounced ni-e-po-KA-la-nov), which is known as the “City of the Immaculate Mother of God”.

There the pilgrims will visit and have Mass in the Franciscan monastery founded in 1927 by St Maximilian Kolbe, patron saint of drug addicts, political prisoners, families, journalists, prisoners, and the pro-life movement. St John Paul declared him the “patron saint of Our Difficult Century”, referring to the 1900s.

The monastery was once the world’s largest, and during World War II many Jews and resistance fighters were hidden there from the Nazis. That is why St John Paul II called it “a heroic place”.

Watch this video of some of the places the pilgrimage will visit.

HOW TO BOOK

The estimated price is R33,850, which includes all flights from Johannesburg return, transfers, accommodation in hotels with breakfast and dinner, lunch packs, entrance fees as per itinerary, travel insurance, English-speaking tour director, local tour guides, travel on air-conditioned bus, and assistance with visa applications.

For a full itinerary or to book a place on this special pilgrimage, please contact Gail or Michael at Fowler Tours at 076 352-3809 or 021 551-3923 or e-mail or go to fowlertours.co.za/poland-2016/