Niegowić is a

village A village is a human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Although villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban v ...

in the administrative district of Gmina Gdów, within Wieliczka County,

Lesser Poland Voivodeship Lesser Poland Voivodeship ( ) is a voivodeships of Poland, voivodeship in southern Poland. It has an area of , and a population of 3,404,863 (2019). Its capital and largest city is Kraków. The province's name recalls the traditional name of a h ...

, in southern Poland. It lies approximately south-east of Wieliczka and south-east of the regional capital

Kraków , officially the Royal Capital City of Kraków, is the List of cities and towns in Poland, second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city has a population of 804,237 ...

. Niegowić was the place of the first appointment of Karol Wojtyła, the future

Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II (born Karol Józef Wojtyła; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 16 October 1978 until Death and funeral of Pope John Paul II, his death in 2005. In his you ...

, as its parish church's, Church of the Assumption of Our Lady, priest. He served there from July 1948 to August 1949, before the then-Cardinal and Krakow Archbishop Adam Sapieha (who had ordained Wojtyła a priest in 1946 on an accelerated schedule, sending him to work on a doctorate in theology in Rome before beginning parish work), assigned him to work at St. Florian's Church in Kraków (where he began his work with university students as a chaplain to students of the

Jagiellonian University The Jagiellonian University (, UJ) is a public research university in Kraków, Poland. Founded in 1364 by Casimir III the Great, King Casimir III the Great, it is the oldest university in Poland and one of the List of oldest universities in con ...

and the Catholic University of Lublin). While he was at the parish, the then-pastor Sapieha celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of his presbyteral ordination. It was Father Wojtyła who suggested that as a present, the parish arrange to build a new church, which was eventually done, the first built at his suggestion.

References

;Notes Villages in Wieliczka County {{Wieliczka-geo-stub