Niepokalanów
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Niepokalanów (City of the Immaculate Mother of God) is a Roman Catholic religious community in Teresin (near Warsaw), Poland founded in 1927 by Friar Minor Conventual Friar Maximilian Kolbe, who was later canonized a saint of the Catholic Church.[1] Also known as Immaculate City, at one time, it was the largest monastery in the world, housing as many as 760 men. Quick growth of the Niepokalanów required more and more space, so now the area of the monastery reaches 28 ha.
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[edit] Beginnings. The war
The facility served as a minor seminary and home for the Conventual brothers, but also a center for charitable ministry and evangelization through the radio programmes and the distribution of printed materials. One of the magazines, The Knight of the Immaculate, countered religious apathy and had a press run of 750,000 copies a month. In 1930 father Kolbe founded a similar community in Nagasaki, Japan.
During the Second World War, the monastery provided shelter to approximately 3,000 Polish and Jewish refugees from western Poland. Father Kolbe was arrested by Gestapo and he died in Auschwitz concentration camp in 1941. Because media evangelisation was forbidden, the friars in Niepokalanów tried to keep up common prayers and help for the prisoners and refugees. The courses of secret teaching were also held and Polish Red Cross circle functioned.
[edit] Nowadays
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). In June 1950, according to the decree of Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski, a new parish in Niepokalanów was established. The church was visited by Pope John Paul II during his 2nd Pastoral Visit in Poland, on the 18th of June 1983. The visit of the Pope made Niepokalanów famous not only in Poland, but also abroad.
Many pilgrims wanted to visit the place, sacred by activity of St. Maximilian. They came to Niepokalanów to pray in the local basilica, to see old chapel (one of the first buildings here, constructed in 1927) and to visit the Museum of St. Maximilian (called There was a Man). The monastery became also a place where the religious services and meeting are held.[2]
[edit] See also
- Basilica of Omni-mediatress of All Glories - history and architecture of basilica minor in Niepokalanów
[edit] Photo gallery
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The beginnings on the photos (museum) -
Basilica - view from the west side -
Basilica - new mosaics in the chapel -
St. Maximilian's room (replica in museum)
[edit] References
- ^ The Franciscan Tradition by Regis J. Armstrong, Ingrid J. Peterson, Phyllis Zagano, 2010, page 51. ISBN 0814630308
- ^ Niepokalanów. Pilgrimage and tourist guide, by fr. Roman Soczewka OFMConv. Wydawnictwo ZET, Wrocław 2004, page 4, 6, 21, 42. ISBN 83-7364-185-8
