Gietrzwald is located in northern Poland, between Olsztyn & Ostroda, 3 miles from the train station of Biesal. The important point in the history of Gietrzwald is an apparition of the Virgin Mary, in 1877, after the partition of the kingdom of Poland between Russia, Prussia & Austria.
1945: the shrine was entrusted to the Order of Canons Regular of the Lateran.
On September 10, 1967, on behalf of Pope Paul VI, the cardinals S. Wyszynski & C.Wojtyla (the future Pope John Paul II), solemnly crowned the sacred image.
On September 11, 1977, one hundred years after the apparitions, the bishop of the region declared the authenticity of the apparitions, with the permission of the Primate & the Holy See.
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Our Lady of Gietrzwald
Our Lady appeared for the first time to Justyna Szafrynska (13) when she was returning home with her mother after having taken an examination prior to receiving the First Holy Communion. The next day, Barbara Samulowska (12) also saw the ‘Bright Lady’ sitting on the throne with Infant Christ among Angels over the maple tree in front of the church while reciting the rosary. The girls asked "Who are you?" she answered, "I am the Blessed Virgin Mary of the Immaculate Conception!". "What do you require, Mother of God?", they asked, the answer was: "I wish you recite the rosary everyday!"
Timeline
| May 19, 1352 | Charter established for the founding of the village of Gietrzwald. A wooden chapel was erected & Father Jan Sterchen carried out his ministry there. During the wars between Poland & the Teutonic Knights, the village & the chapel were destroyed. |
| 15th century | A shrine with no aisles was setup on the stone foundation. |
| 1500 | Consecration of shrine, under the invocation of the Nativity of Our Lady, by Auxiliary Bishop Jan Wilde. |
| 1790 | Bishop Ignacy Krasicki vested the church with 2 new titles: St. John Apostle & Sts. Peter & Paul Apostles. |
| 19th century | Parish priest Jozef Jordan led an expansion of the church. He strengthened the foundation and walls. The shrine acquired the present shape of the Roman cross in the place of the previous rectangle. It is also during this time that they demolish the wooden tower & erected a brick one with a gothic capping. The church roof was covered with roofing tiles & the tower with sheet metal. |
| June 27, 1877 | Our Lady appeared for the first time to Justyna when she was returning home with her mother after having taken an examination prior to receiving the First Holy Communion. |
| June 28, 1877 | Barbara Samulowska also saw the ‘Bright Lady’ sitting on the throne with Infant Christ among Angels over the maple tree in front of the church while reciting the rosary. The girls asked "Who are you?" she answered, "I am the Blessed Virgin Mary of the Immaculate Conception!". "What do you require, Mother of God?", they asked, the answer was: "I wish you recite the rosary everyday!" |
| June 27, 1877 | Our Lady appeared for the first time to Justyna when she was returning home with her mother after having taken an examination prior to receiving the First Holy Communion. |
| June 28, 1877 | Barbara Samulowska also saw the ‘Bright Lady’ sitting on the throne with Infant Christ among Angels over the maple tree in front of the church while reciting the rosary. The girls asked "Who are you?" she answered, "I am the Blessed Virgin Mary of the Immaculate Conception!". "What do you require, Mother of God?", they asked, the answer was: "I wish you recite the rosary everyday!" |
| June 30, 1877 | Justyna asked: "What You require Holy Mother"? & she heard the answer: "I require, so that you pray Rosary everyday!". |
| July 1, 1877 | On this day, the children from the parish in Gietrzwald received their First Holy Communion. Justyna asked during the prayer of Rosary under the maple tree "Who are You?", & the Holy Mother answered: I am The Most Holy Virgin Mary Immaculately Conceived!" |
| July 3, 1877 | The girls asked the Holy Mother "Whether the sick people who come here, will be healed?" The Holy Mother answered: "The miracle will happen, & after that the sick people will be healed", & later said: "Let the sick people pray Rosary". |
| July 10, 1877 | The first written account of the Gietrzwald apparitions was provided by the Pelplin "Pielgrzym" (Pilgrim) which compared the events with what had happened a year earlier in Marpingen. |
| July 28, 1877 | On the question, what it means, if somebody swears falsely, the Holy Mother answered: "Such person is not deserving to go to Heaven, such person is induced to do it by Satan". |
| Aug 1, 1877 | Barbara asked: "Whether the orphaned parishes will receive the priests soon?" – The Holy Mother answered: If people pray zealously, at the time the Church will not be persecuted, & the orphaned parishes will receive the priests!" |
| Sep 8, 1877 | At about 7:00 o’clock in the evening the Holy Mother blessed the spring & said the words: "Now, the sick people can take this water for their healing". Pilgrims have been taking healing water from it ever since. |
| Sep 16, 1877 | At about 5:00 o’clock in the evening the Holy Mother blessed, at the beginning Her own figure in the small chapel, & after that She blessed all people who asked for it & all people. At the end, She said: "PRAY ROSARY ZEALOUSLY!" |
| Bishop Filip Krementz, administrator of the diocese,
required a detailed report from the parish priest, & sent delegates to
Gietrzwald to observe the state & behavior of the visionaries in the
course of apparitions, to prepare the record of their testimonies &
to collect observations of pilgrims & clergy. The Bishop’s delegates confirmed that the apparitions didn't appear fraudulent & that the girls behaved normally. They reported that the girls didn't seem to be seeking profit or acknowledgment & possessed modesty, sincerity & simplicity. |
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| Sept 16, 1877 | The last apparition occurs. |
| 1878 | After receiving the results of the commissions to examine authenticity of the apparitions, Bishop Filip Krementz promoted the publication in German & in Polish of the study by Father Franciszek Hipler entitled "The Apparitions of Our Lady in Gietrzwald to the Catholic People According to the Official Documents". |
| Sept 18, 1927 | On the fiftieth anniversary of the apparition, many pilgrims flocked to Gietrzwald. The Warsaw New Records Office tells us that more than 1500 people arrived from Poland. |
| Sept 10, 1967 | Primate of Poland Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski visited
the shrine to commemorate the 19th anniversary of the apparitions & crowned the miracle icon, saying: "We're placing the golden crowns
on your temples, the Holy Mother of the Warmian Land, that You, being
the Mother, could reign, we're kneeling down in front of you in the
spirit of full devotion for your motherly work, just to provide Poland
with peace & the spirit of unity. We ask you to teach us to always
surrender to lordly powers of the Gospel, affection towards God &
people, to all the requirements of fulfilled affection. We want to come
to you, trustful that you always take care, always receive, always
listen." At the same time, the Holy See allowed introduction of the Gietrzwald Blessed Virgin Mary’s feast for the Warmia’s diocese on September 8 with special propers of the Mass & of the Breviary. |
| Feb 2, 1970 | Pope Paul VI elevated the church in Gietrzwald to the rank of Basilica Minor. |
| Sept 11, 1977 | One hundredth anniversary of Our Lady apparitions in Gietrzwald. Masses of faithful gathered with the representatives of the Episcopal Conference of Poland headed by Cardinal Karol Wojtyla who prayed: "Remember, Blessed Virgin Mary, no one has heard that anybody who has entrusted his needs to your maternal kindness has been disappointed. Therefore, full of trust in face of pleading might of your heart, we are laying down in your generous hands, the health of your servant & our Primate. Look at his loyalty & devotion, with which he has been serving you for many years as priest & bishop, & restore in full his strength so that he may see your glory in the days of the jubilee of the basilica of Our Lady of Czestochowa & direct the Church in Poland for many years." The primate who was too ill to attend recovered. |
| Sept 11, 1977 | During the ceremonies, the decree of the Warmian Bishop, Jozef Drzazga, was read approving the devotion to Our Lady’s apparitions in Gietrzwald as not contradicting Christian faith & morality & recognizing the miraculous & divine nature of the events. |
Description of the Virgin
The Virgin Mary appeared as a ‘Bright Lady’ sitting on the throne with Infant Christ among Angels.
Messages
Among many questions regarding health & salvation of various persons, the children also asked the following: "Will the Church in the Kingdom of Poland set free?" "Will the deserted parishes in southern Warmia receive their priests soon?" They heard in reply: "Yes, if people pray ardently, then the Church will not be oppressed, & the deserted parishes will receive the priests!"
To those questions was evidenced by oppressions of the Catholic Church in the Kingdom of Poland by tsarist Russia after the January 1863 Uprising & by limitation of its influence in the Prussian sector of partitioned Poland in the period of Kulturkampf.
Our Lady’s answers brought consolation to the Poles. They actually became true. Hence, a great number of Poles from all districts paid visits to Gietrzwald. Due to this fact, the Prussian authorities immediately assumed a resolute negative attitude towards the apparitions. The local administration, the German press & part of the clergy assumed them to be according to Bishop Jan Oblak, a political manifestation, a Polish national demonstration, fraud & superstition, allegedly dangerous to the state, progress & the public peace. They inflicted various punishments on Polish pilgrims, Poles fathers, the local parish priest Father Augustyn Weichsel, including imprisonment, imposition of fines & suspending in the capacity of ministration.
Miracles and Signs
The impact of the apparitions in Warmia was enormous. Most notably, there was a rebirth of moral life & a heightening of worshiper’s awareness. Five years after the events, in a report dated September 27, 1882, Father Augustyn Weichsel wrote: "Not only my parish, but the whole neighborhood has become more pious after the apparitions. This was evidenced by the common reciting of the Holy Rosary all the homes, admittance to the monastery by many people, regular attendance at the church (...) Good effects of the apparitions spread out everywhere, they also infiltrated to the Kingdom of Poland & Russia (...) An apparent result was the habit of the collective reciting of the Rosary everyday. In southern Warmia, the Rosary was prayed in almost at all homes, as well as in the homes of parishes of the Chelmno, Poznan & Wroclaw dioceses".
In the village on the Gilwa River, parishioners were reciting the Rosary in the church 3 times a day: in the morning, in the afternoon & in the evening. Moreover, there were numerous cases of conversions of sinners. The Holy Sacraments were frequently received.
Primate of Poland, Cardinal Stefan Wyszynskit, was too ill to attend the 100th anniversary of Our Lady apparitions in Gietrzwald. Large crowds of faithful gathered with the representatives of the Episcopal Conference of Poland headed by Cardinal Karol Wojtyla who prayed: "Remember, Blessed Virgin Mary, no one has heard that anybody who has entrusted his needs to your maternal kindness has been disappointed. Therefore, full of trust in face of pleading might of your heart, we are laying down in your generous hands, the health of your servant & our Primate. Look at his loyalty & devotion, with which he has been serving you for many years as priest & bishop, & restore in full his strength so that he may see your glory in the days of the jubilee of the basilica of Our Lady of Cz?stochowa & direct the Church in Poland for many years." The primate recovered from his illness.
Approval
After receiving the results of the commissions to examine authenticity of the apparitions, Bishop Filip Krementz in 1878 promoted the publication in German & in Polish of the study by Father Franciszek Hipler entitled "The Apparitions of Our Lady in Gietrzwald to the Catholic People According to the Official Documents".
During the ceremonies for the 100th anniversary of the apparitions, the decree of the Warmian Bishop, Jozef Drzazga, was read: "Taking into account the conformity of the Gietrzwald apparitions with faith & morality, the integrity of the recipients of those apparitions, & the blest effects of the Gietrzwald apparitions over the whole century, to a greater glory of the One God in Three Persons, Father, Son & Holy Spirit, in praise of the Blessed Virgin Mary of the Immaculate Conception, by virtue of our ordinary Pastoral Office in the holy Diocese Warmian Church, we hereby approve the devotion to Our Lady’s Apparitions in Gietrzwald as not contradicting Christian faith and morality whose miraculous & divine nature cannot be excluded!"
The Memorial of Our Lady of Gietrzwald is celebrated on September 8.
Prayers
Hymn to the Blessed Virgin Mary of Gietrzwald
by Andrzej Samulowski
It was just the sunset,
When the wonderful brilliant star
Arose in the Warmian land
To shed light with its rays.
This news almost by a miracle
Was spread among the people,
Far and near, they would say:
In Warmia, there are new miracles.
Traditional Prayer
Mother of Our Lord, healer of human souls & bodies, Lady of Giettrzwald, you who blessed this place with your presence, please turn your loving eyes toward me & ask your son Jesus Christ for the favors I am in need of [mention request]. Compassionate & merciful Virgin Mother, I am forever yours.
