Niegowić is a

village A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to ...

in the administrative district of

Gmina Gdów __NOTOC__ Gmina Gdów is a rural gmina (administrative district) in Wieliczka County, Lesser Poland Voivodeship, in southern Poland. Its seat is the village of Gdów, which lies approximately south-east of Wieliczka and south-east of the regio ...

, within Wieliczka County,

Lesser Poland Voivodeship Lesser Poland Voivodeship or Lesser Poland Province (in pl, województwo małopolskie ), also known as Małopolska, is a voivodeship (province), in southern Poland. It has an area of , and a population of 3,404,863 (2019). It was created on 1 ...

, in southern Poland. It lies approximately south-east of

Wieliczka Wieliczka (German: ''Groß Salze'', Latin: ''Magnum Sal'') is a historic town in southern Poland, situated within the Kraków metropolitan area in Lesser Poland Voivodeship since 1999. The town was initially founded in 1290 by Premislaus II of P ...

and south-east of the regional capital

Kraków Kraków (), or Cracow, is the second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city dates back to the seventh century. Kraków was the official capital of Poland until 1596 ...

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

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 ...

, 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 ST, St, or St. may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Stanza, in poetry * Suicidal Tendencies, an American heavy metal/hardcore punk band * Star Trek, a science-fiction media franchise * Summa Theologica, a compendium of Catholic philosophy ...

in Kraków (where he began his work with university students as a chaplain to students of the

Jagiellonian University The Jagiellonian University (Polish: ''Uniwersytet Jagielloński'', UJ) is a public research university in Kraków, Poland. Founded in 1364 by King Casimir III the Great, it is the oldest university in Poland and the 13th oldest university in ...

and the

Catholic University of Lublin John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin ( pl, Katolicki Uniwersytet Lubelski Jana Pawła II, la, Universitas Catholica Lublinensis Ioannis Pauli II, abbreviation KUL), established in 1918. It is the only private college in Poland with the s ...

). 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