Niepokalanów monastery (so called ''City of the Immaculate Mother of God'') is a

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

religious community in Teresin (42 km to the west from

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

founded in 1927 by Friar Minor Conventual Friar

Maximilian Kolbe Maximilian Maria Kolbe (born Raymund Kolbe; pl, Maksymilian Maria Kolbe; 1894–1941) was a Polish Catholic priest and Conventual Franciscan friar who volunteered to die in place of a man named Franciszek Gajowniczek in the German death camp ...

, who was later canonized as a saint-martyr of the Catholic Church.''The Franciscan Tradition'' by Regis J. Armstrong, Ingrid J. Peterson, Phyllis Zagano, 2010, page 51.

Beginnings of the monastery

In 1927 Prince Jan Drucki-Lubecki, son of Konstanty Drucki - Lubecki (commander of the Vilnius Cavalry Brigade) and Countess Maria Antonina Krasinski, offered Fr. Maximilian Kolbe a convenient ground near Warsaw for building a new

monastery A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer which ...

, later called Niepokalanów. In autumn of the same year the first wooden barracks were built and a consecration of the new monastery took place on 7 December 1927. The facility served as a home for the Conventual brothers, a minor seminary and a

volunteer fire department A volunteer fire department (VFD) is a fire department of volunteers who perform fire suppression and other related emergency services for a local jurisdiction. Volunteer and retained (on-call) firefighters are expected to be on call to respond t ...

. It was also a centre for charitable ministry and evangelization through the radio programmes and the distribution of printed materials. In 1930 Father Kolbe founded a similar community in

Nagasaki is the capital and the largest city of Nagasaki Prefecture on the island of Kyushu in Japan. It became the sole port used for trade with the Portuguese and Dutch during the 16th through 19th centuries. The Hidden Christian Sites in the ...

(Japan), called ''Mugenzai no Sono'' (無原罪の園:Garden of the Immaculate). Quick growth of the Niepokalanów required more and more space, so the area of the monastery reached 28 ha. Before the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

broke out, it was the largest

in the world, housing as many as 760 men. One of the magazines, ''The Knight of the Immaculate'', countered religious apathy and had a press run of 750,000 copies a month. The whole publishing house used about 1600 tonnes of paper annually for about 60 million copies of papers.

The time of war

During the

, the monastery provided shelter for many soldiers, injured in the

September Campaign The invasion of Poland (1 September – 6 October 1939) was a joint attack on the Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union which marked the beginning of World War II. The German invasion began on 1 September 1939, one week after ...

and also for refugees, regardless of their nationality or religion (e. g. to approximately 1,500

Jew Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""Th ...

ish refugees from western Poland).''Mary's Knight. The Mission and Martyrdom of Saint Maksymilian Maria Kolbe'', by Claude R. Foster. West Chester University Press, West Chester - Pennsylvania 2002, page 586, 587, 592. Father

, together with four other

Franciscan The Franciscans are a group of related Mendicant orders, mendicant Christianity, Christian Catholic religious order, religious orders within the Catholic Church. Founded in 1209 by Italian Catholic friar Francis of Assisi, these orders include t ...

s, was arrested by the

Gestapo The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one organi ...

and he was murdered in

Auschwitz concentration camp Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It con ...

in 1941 when he chose to sacrifice his life so another would live. In the end of the war (January 1945) during heavy bombardment of Niepokalanów, six friars were killed, some others injured and many of the buildings of the monastery were destroyed. That time the media evangelisation was forbidden (with the only one exception - December 1940 issue of "Rycerz Niepokalanej", which aroused the hope of surviving dark time of war). So the Franciscans tried to keep up common prayers and help for the prisoners and numerous refugees. Niepokalanow basilica fc44

There was a

sawmill A sawmill (saw mill, saw-mill) or lumber mill is a facility where logs are cut into lumber. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to make long pieces, and crosswise to length depending on standard or custom sizes (dimensi ...

, carpentry and dairy, a repair shop for farm machinery, bicycles, watches and many other items. The friars grew their own food, they had livestock, bee hives and chickens. The courses of secret teaching were also held and PCK (

Polish Red Cross Polish Red Cross ( pl, Polski Czerwony Krzyż, abbr. PCK) is the Polish member of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. Its 19th-century roots may be found in the Russian and Austrian Partitions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwea ...

) circle functioned.

Pilgrimages today

After the war the printing house in Niepokalanów was reopened and ''The Knight of the Immaculate'' was issued again. In 1948-1954 there was built a new church, since April 1980 called ''basilica minor''. Ioannis Paulus PP II Letterae Apostolicae ''Amor Noster''
(subtitle: ''In loco Niepokalanów, qui est in Polonia, templum B.V.M. Immaculatae, Mediatricis omnium gratiarum, ad dignitatem basilicae minoris evehitur'') - the Apostolic Letter of John Paul II, April 1980 In June 1950, according to the decree of Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski, a new parish in Niepokalanów was established (6500 faithful circa). The church and the monastery were visited by Pope

John Paul II Pope John Paul II ( la, Ioannes Paulus II; it, Giovanni Paolo II; pl, Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła ; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his ...

during his second Pastoral Visit in Poland, on 18 of June 1983. The visit of the Pope made Niepokalanów famous not only in Poland, but also abroad. The Pope called the monastery ''a heroic place where saint Maximilian lived'' and ''the environment of the Immaculate''. Many pilgrims want to visit the place, sacred by activity of St Maximilian, and pray in the local basilica. They also can see the Museum of St Maximilian (called ''There was a Man''), established in 1998, and a wooden ''old chapel'', one of the first buildings here, constructed in 1927 for the friars and rebuilt two years later so the local faithful could attend the celebrations and services. The monastery became also a place where many religious meeting are held.''Niepokalanów. Pilgrimage and tourist guide'', by Fr. Roman Soczewka OFMConv. Wydawnictwo ZET, Wrocław 2004, page 4, 6, 21, 42.

Small photo gallery

Image:Niepokalanow basilica fc02.jpg, Image:Niepokalanow basilica fc16.jpg, Image:Maxymil muzeum fc03.jpg, Image:Niepokalanow basilica fc23.jpg,

References

External links