Marian Devotion - Our Lady of Kalwaria (Calvary)

was the formal beginning of Kalwaria Zebrzydowska. Two years later the first OFM friars came to Kalwaria when the building of the church and the friary began.

Our Lady’s devotion in Kalwaria Zebrydowska had its beginnings at the time of Mikolaj Zebrzydowski, who procured the title of Our Lady of the Angels for the main church. At the front altar of this church he put a silver statue of Our Lady that was bought in Loreto, Italy. This sculpture was worshipped for the first 40 years of the sanctuary’s existence.

Zebrzydowski built two Marian chapels, the so called, ‘Hut’ and ‘Our Lady’s Tomb’, while his son Jan added 8 more Marian chapels. Pilgrims began holding Marian Avenue Services at these chapels which became very popular over the years.

The Marian devotion began to flourish greatly in 1641 when the painting of Our Lady of Kalwaria (Calvary) was placed in the church. The painting was donated by Stanislaw Paszkowski of Brzezie. It is worth noting that the first owner of the miraculous painting was the vicar from the village of Krzywaczka about 10 km from Kalwaria. Some time later it was acquired by the noble family of Paszkowski. However in 1641 Elzbieta Paszkowska noticed that on the painting there were blood tears flowing out from Our Lady’s eyes. It was then that the guardian of the friary in Kalwaria encouraged the Paszkowski family to move the painting to the friary-church.

Bishop Jakub Zadzik had the painting moved to the sacristy from the main altar where it was to stay until its miraculous features were cleared. However, it remained greatly worshipped by pilgrims, who received a lot of graces through it, and thus was soon proclaimed glorious. In 1656 to 1978. It was his idea to start organising male pilgrimages in 1968. Women’s pilgrimages soon followed. During the Way of the Cross men and male youths would carry the cross while women and girls would carry a copy of the painting of Our Lady of Kalwaria. Since 1993 the separate pilgrimages of men and women changed into a joint Pilgrimage of Families and that of catechised youths.

To date more than a million pilgrims come to the Sanctuary every year in particular for the feast of Our Lady of the Angels on the 2nd of August, The Birth of Our Lady on the 8th of September and especially for celebrations of The Assumption the biggest celebration in Kalwaria Zebrzydowska and one of the biggest of this kind in Poland.

Fr. Hermann Duncan is a Carmelite Friar at the Caremlite Priory in Balluta.