Commemorating the centenary of the birth of Karol Wojtyła, falling on 18 May, the Polish Sejm declared 2020 the Year of Saint John Paul II. Traces of his presence can be found all over Kraków, since he made our city his home for almost half of his life.
Karol Wojtyła lived in Kraków for 40 years: from starting his undergraduate course at the Jagiellonian University in 1938 (at 20 Gołębia Street) until he was elected as the head of the Catholic Church in October 1978. He returned here seven times as John Paul II. At the threshold of the Second World War, Wojtyła – no longer a student but a labourer at the Solvay quarry in Zakrzówek – visited the Chapel of the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy in Łagiewniki. Sister Faustina Kowalska’s message of Divine Mercy accompanied throughout his life. As a priest, he was an ardent supporter of the cult of Merciful Christ which was heavily criticised at the time; preaching it was an important element of his pontificate. During his last, farewell visit in 2002, the story started in Kraków over 60 years earlier found a symbolic closure: the Pope consecrated the new basilica at the Sanctuary of Divine Mercy he founded in Łagiewniki. A few years later, Cardinal Stanisław Dziwisz erected a new Sanctuary of the Blessed John Paul II at the nearby Białe Morza.
Young Wojtyła walked back from Łagiewniki to 10 Tyniecka Street in Dębniki, where he lived with his mother’s family after leaving his native Wadowice. He originally shared the modest, two-room apartment with his father; when he died suddenly in 1941, Wojtyła’s friend from Wadowice Mieczysław Kotlarczyk moved into the spare room. It was here at Tyniecka that the future Pope came up with the idea of his underground theatre of the word, later named Rhapsodic Theatre. Today, the apartment is a branch of the Cardinal Karol Wojtyła Archdiocesan Museum.
Another important address for Wojtyła was the Palace of the Bishops of Kraków at 3 Franciszkańska Street, where he began courses in the clandestine underground seminary in 1941. After the outbreak of the Warsaw Uprising, Archbishop Adam Stefan Sapieha organised a dormitory for young clerics at the curia to protect them from mass arrests in the event of a similar uprising in Kraków. Wojtyła remained closely tied with the palace at Franciszkańska Street for the rest of his days. He worked there from 1958 as Auxiliary Bishop at the Metropolitan Curia, and later as Metropolitan Bishop of Kraków. He also stayed there as Pope during all his pilgrimages to Kraków. In the evenings, he greeted young people assembled by the Papal window above the entrance. The window looked out over the Franciscan Church, where he liked to pray. In 1979, the church hosted a meeting for people with chronic illnesses, during which the Pope talked about Evangelical aspects of suffering.
In 1951, Father Wojtyła was sent on study leave to help him complete his doctoral habilitation. He rented a room at the tenement house at 19 Kanonicza Street and celebrated daily mass at the Church of St Catherine in Kazimierz and later at the Basilica of St Mary. In 1953, he defended his habilitation thesis at the Faculty of Theology at the Jagiellonian University; however, the Ministry of Education refused to recognise it, and Poland’s oldest faculty of theology was abolished by the communist authorities. However, it continued to operate as a structural part of the Church, and it has been continued by the Papal Academy of Theology founded by John Paul II in 1981. The school was renamed the John Paul II Papal University in 2009.
In 1958, Karol Wojtyła was appointed as Bishop at Wawel Cathedral, where he also celebrated his inaugural mass at the Crypt of St. Leonard twelve years previously. In 1964, he was inaugurated as the Metropolitan Bishop of Kraków at Wawel Cathedral, and visited it regularly as Pope. During his first pilgrimage to Poland in 1979, he prayed at the tomb of St. Stanislaus on the 900th anniversary of his passing. He spoke to young people assembled at the place of the saint’s death at the Pauline Church on the Rock, discussing the significance of academic ministry which he was closely involved with in Kraków during the 1950s as vicar at the Church of St. Florian. It was then that he also started the now-famous camping trips with young people.
Between 1958 and 1967, Bishop Wojtyła lived at an apartment at a tenement house at 21 Kanonicza Street. Today, both buildings at the site are home to the Cardinal Karol Wojtyła Archdiocesan Museum. The museum has prepared the exhibition Shepherd as part of this year’s celebrations of the centenary of the Pope’s birth, recalling his most important thoughts and teachings by presenting his personal effects, gifts from the faithful and memorabilia. Although we will have to wait to visit the exhibition in person, children and young people have until 17 May to submit their entries for the “Postcard to Heaven” addressed to St. John Paul II on the museum’s FB page.
When we consider Karol Wojtyła’s Cracovian paths, we mustn’t overlook Nowa Huta: he was an ardent supporter of the construction of the first new church in the district, the Church of Mary Queen of Poland. Consecrated in 1977, the church immediately became a symbol of the transition of the “city without God” into a bastion of the Solidarity movement. More details on the long battle to create the church can be found on the virtual exhibition of the Museum of Kraków “We Want God”: 60th Anniversary of the Struggle for the Cross in Nowa Huta (www.krzyznowohucki.muzeumkrakowa.pl). Before the church was built, the Metropolitan Bishop of Kraków regularly celebrated mass in the open air, bringing together crowds and strengthening the sense of community. The atmosphere was repeated on an even greater scale during masses celebrated by John Paul II at the Błonia Common in 1979 and 1983.
The list pf Papal locations in Kraków is truly endless… Paths of St. John Paul II cross with some of the city’s most important historical events, lives of eminent Cracovians and private experiences of locals who met him at different stages of his life. (Dorota Dziunikowska, miesięcznik „Karnet")
Photos courtesy of the Cardinal Karol Wojtyła Archdiocesan Museum
