Holy Cross Church is a brick built parish church in Bieganowo, Kołaczkowo commune, in

Września County Września County () is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Greater Poland Voivodeship, west-central Poland. It came into being on January 1, 1999, as a result of the Polish local government reforms passed in 1998. ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

History and description

The

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a place/building for Christian religious activities and praying * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian comm ...

in Bieganowo was built around 1210. At that time it was a wooden

temple A temple (from the Latin ) is a place of worship, a building used for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. By convention, the specially built places of worship of some religions are commonly called "temples" in Engli ...

, named "All Saints" church. In 1729 squire Franciszek Kowalski crest of

Korab Korab (, ) is a mountain range in eastern Albania and western North Macedonia, running along the border between the two countries. It forms also the European Green Belt. In Albania, it is also called ''Vargu lindor'' (), but this term encompass ...

, began to build a new church, because the previous one was in ruins. In 1731 Bishop Jan Tarło of Poznan consecrated it. The church is first mentioned in 1737 by the archdeacon of

Poznań Poznań ( ) is a city on the Warta, River Warta in west Poland, within the Greater Poland region. The city is an important cultural and business center and one of Poland's most populous regions with many regional customs such as Saint John's ...

, Kacykowski, "under the invocation of the Raising of the Holy Cross". However, in documents from the second visitation conducted by the Bishop Franciszek Ksawery de Wrbna Rydzyński in 1777, the temple was named "Finding of the Holy Cross". By 1799 the temple was again in ruins. Parish priest Mateusz Borowicz, working with the parish

patron Patronage is the support, encouragement, privilege, or financial aid that an organization or individual bestows on another. In the history of art, art patronage refers to the support that princes, popes, and other wealthy and influential people ...

Jan Bronisz and parishioners rebuilt the entire church, with a new tower, a stone wall on the outside and a wooden interior. In 1926 the interior of the church was renovated by a new patron, Edward Grabski. During the

Nazi occupation German-occupied Europe, or Nazi-occupied Europe, refers to the sovereign countries of Europe which were wholly or partly militarily occupied and civil-occupied, including puppet states, by the (armed forces) and the government of Nazi Germany at ...

the church was closed. When the church was reopened after the war much of it had been destroyed by dry rot. On the night of 1 February 1982 at about 11:45PM a fire broke out and the building burned down in about 30 minutes. Only the tower survived. With the consent of church and state, the

liturgy Liturgy is the customary public ritual of worship performed by a religious group. As a religious phenomenon, liturgy represents a communal response to and participation in the sacred through activities reflecting praise, thanksgiving, remembra ...

was held in the common rooms of the local, state-owned farms until 17 July 1982. On 15 March 1982, construction of the new church began, made possible by the work of parishioners, and with help from State Farm director Bogumił Paul. The church was given new foundations and the original tower was restored. On 21 April 1982 Bishop

Józef Glemp Józef Glemp (18 December 192923 January 2013) was a Polish Cardinal (Catholic Church), cardinal of the Catholic Church. He was List of bishops and archbishops of Warsaw, Archbishop of Warsaw from 1981 to 2006, and was elevated to the cardinalate ...

, who later became the Polish Primate, assisted by bishop Jan Czerniak, laid the foundation stone along with a brass tube containing documents. By 17 July 1982 the church was completed and, on 25 June 1984, Glemp consecrated the church. In the tower behind the memorial tablet of 1982 are the entombed remains of the parish priest, Fr. Stanislaw Musial, who was murdered in

Dachau Dachau (, ; , ; ) was one of the first concentration camps built by Nazi Germany and the longest-running one, opening on 22 March 1933. The camp was initially intended to intern Hitler's political opponents, which consisted of communists, s ...

concentration In chemistry, concentration is the abundance of a constituent divided by the total volume of a mixture. Several types of mathematical description can be distinguished: '' mass concentration'', '' molar concentration'', '' number concentration'', ...

camp in 1940 and whose body was returned to his family by the Nazis.

Bibliography

Chronicle A chronicle (, from Greek ''chroniká'', from , ''chrónos'' – "time") is a historical account of events arranged in chronological order, as in a timeline. Typically, equal weight is given for historically important events and local events ...

of the parish church of the Holy Cross in Bieganowo in Polish (available from the parish office).

External links

Information about Holy Cross Church in Bieganowo

{{Use dmy dates, date=November 2018 Bieganowo Gmina Kołaczkowo