THE SPECIFIC POSITION OF MARY, THE HOLY MOTHER OF GOD IN POLISH RELIGION / Wyjątkowa pozycja Maryi, Matki Boga, w polskiej obrzędowości popularnej

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THE SPECIFIC POSITION OF MARY, THE HOLY MOTHER OF GOD IN POLISH RELIGION

Zuzanna MARIA WIŚNICKA-TOMALAK Anna-Maria KIEWSKA

University of Łódź, Poland

СПЕЦИФИЧНАТА ПОЗИЦИЯ НА ДЕВА МАРИЯ, БОЖИЯТА МАЙКА, В ПОЛСКАТА РЕЛИГИЯ

Зузана Мария ВИШНИЦКА-ТОМАЛЯК Анна-Мария КИЕВСКА

Университет в Лодз, Полша

Резюме: В унисон с темата на Интензивната програма „Стандарти на всекидне-вието през Средновековието и Новото време“ в тази статия ще се опитаме да пред-ставим един въпрос, който се свързва както със средните векове, така и със съвремие-то. Невъзможно е полската култура да бъде разбрана без култа към Богородица – важен елемент от всекидневието на голяма част от поляците, който съответно е широко дискутиран от етнографската наука като концепция за полската народна святост1. Разбира се, ние приемаме културата като комплексно понятие и култът към Богоро-дица е само една малка част от нея. За да разберем култа като цяло и специфичната позиция на Богородица, Майката в полския религиозен живот, ще изследваме неговите корени и ще разкрием първите му проявления, които могат да се открият в Среднове-ковието (някои обясняващи го теории го отвеждат още към предхристиянските вре-мена в Полша – преди Х в.), след това ще се опитаме да покажем как култът проявява своето влияние в съвремието. Разбира се, Богородица е важна за католиците по цял свят, но както казва свещеникът Павел Виатрак, „много чужденци обръщат внимание на нашето по-специфично почитане на Богородица. Ние със сигурност се отличаваме от останалите европейски католически държави“2.

Ключови думи: култът към Богородица, народно християнство, католицизъм.

The concept of popular piety and religious culture

When the huge religion spread through the country which before was pagan, it always mixes with traditions of the land3. Since 966, when

Poland was baptised4, when the plots of Catholicism and traditions started to

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intermingle, the role of Holy Mother has been huge. Although it may seem that as long as the laicisation of society increases, its powerfulness decreases, still it is a very important element of Polish religious life that influences the whole society.

The concept of popular piety refers not to religion professed – the model of Roman Catholicism, but to the religious culture – the pattern of religious-ness realised among the defined social environment5. The defined environment in our article would be the Polish society – not only (as it was in the past in ethnography) village folks, but the whole society, as long as according to CBOS researches from January 2012, 93% of the Poles define themselves as Catholics6. Nowadays popular religious life in our opinion is a combination of folklore be-liefs with their roots in peasant culture and the beliefs that appeared among the nobility. Also the undeniable influence on it had the increase of religious knowledge between the people in Poland – the first wave after the year 1000, than – when the monasteries started to appear in Poland, and the third wave – after the schooling obligation was implemented in the 19th century.

The concept of Polish popular piety evolved through the years in Polish ethnography. Our description of it would be based on the texts of Stefan Czar-nowski7, Ryszard Tomicki8 and Joanna Tokarska Bakir9. The easiest definition of popular piety gives us Arkadiusz Klimczak: “It is widely popular, but not complicated piety of so called common folks, often connected with magic, su-perstitions, enchantments”10. These ‘common folks’ are in our work equal to the described above social environment. Also we can read that “Popular piety is not an easy reflection of believers of the Church, and also it is not equal to the superstition. It undergoes but also resists corrections according to its own rules of development“11.

The better description of popular piety demands enumerating its main fea-tures:

1. Sensualism – ‘Yet in my flesh I will see God’ [Job 19.26] – touching, kiss-ing, rubbing objects connected to the faith. It is the belief or the ability to believe that part of the holiness of the character (saints, Holy Mary) is in their figures, paintings and other similar objects. During these re-ligious acts sometimes happens the ‘moment of undistinction’ which means that it is almost impossible for a person to tell apart the object from its reference.

2. Ritualism – gestures and motions that are more traditional than based on religious knowledge.

3. Nationalism – national identity is strongly connected to Catholic re-ligion in Poland. There is a term “Polish Catholics”, which has hidden underneath the opinion that only a Pole can be a real Catholic, a Pole

Zuzanna Maria Wiśnicka-Tomalak, Anna-Maria Kiewska

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that is not Catholic is not a real Pole. It could be thought as a stereo-type that functions between people in Poland, but as dr. hab. Bartłomiej Dobroczyński says:

‘In my opinion – and some sociological research proves it – the Polish devotion to religion is mainly declarative. We have a thing about Ro-man-Catholic phraseology and iconography, we demonstrate our mem-bership and support for the Church. It is done by all Polish political parties – even those from the left wing. It happens because Catholicism in Poland acts as not only a religion, but is mostly the way of setting out Polish identity – especially by negation. Catholicism and cross means that I am a Pole, so: I am not a Jew, I am not a German protestant, Czech without religion or Russian the Orthodox. Now I will risk to state the very unpopular opinion: Poles have no identity outside of the religion. To tell the truth, detached from Catholicism there is no such thing as Polishness.’12

It is an important voice that describes the connection between Catholicism and Polish national identity. We would like to describe ‘religious nationalism’ of the Poles as the strong link between the feeling of identity (also patriotism) and Catholic faith, with its roots in Polish history. Almost all of the important his-torical events have their religious dimension in the past and even in the modern history – the riots and strikes in 1980’s in Poland (which ended in overthrow-ing of communism), the whole struggle for freedom was connected to religion (the messes took place, Lech Wałęsa signed important papers with a huge pen decorated with the images of Pope John Paul II etc.), the disastrous Air Force Tu–154 crash that occurred on 10 April 2010 had its religious dimension (like the President Lech Kaczyński with his wife buried in a crypt below Wawel Ca-thedral, a place traditionally reserved for people considered to be heroes of Polish history13 and connected to the religion of course which is another sign of connection between history and religion in Poland). According to the Holy Mary Cult there were three acts of devotion that involved the whole nation: in the year 1656 King Jan II Kazimierz made his Oath, calling Mary the Queen of his lands; in the year 1956 there were Oaths of the Polish nation in Jasna Góra; in the year 1966 the Act of Coming under Maternal Slavery into the Hands of Mary, the Mother of the Church took place. Even though all of these acts hap-pened in different historical situation, all of them had the same aim – the rescue of the Polish nation that was in danger, along with its identity and statehood14.

4. Holy Mary Cult – the special devotion to Holy Mary is a part of the Pol-ish popular piety.

The Specific Position of Mary, the Holy Mother of...

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It is important to state here, that the Holy Mary Cult itself possesses fea-tures of the popular piety – sensualism, ritualism and nationalism.

Why Holy Mary? The question why Holy Mary could have become so important in Poland is

complex and not easy to answer. It could be asked other way round – why did it not happen in other Catholic (especially European) countries? Answering this question would require historical research that we, ethnologists, are not capable of, but maybe in future it would be interesting to deepen our knowledge about it in a comparative way. However, the reason for this may lay, in our opinion, in the different place of Catholic religion in other countries – the stronger Refor-mation (for example in Germany).

There are some theories that the popularity of the Cult of Holy Mary among the people of Poland has Slavic origin and is connected to the very pop-ular cult of Mokosh15 (a Slavic goddess connected with female activities, water and motherhood) in these lands or that the Cult of Mary replaced the cult of Nya – a Slavic female goddess of death16. The pre-Catholic cults in these lands are known to have more balanced pattern of beliefs between male and female gods and goddesses than patriarchal Judaism, which could be important too17.

Also, according to the Polish history, we can see that the position of wom-an always was relatively high in Poland – it is said that The Napoleonic Code which in most of the European countries brought on the increase of women rights, to Poland brought a decrease. Also there is a term “The Polish Mother” which is strongly connected to history and by using it you describe the perfect mother – warm, patriotic, loving, caring, devoted to Poland and her family, ready to sacrifice herself in duty of preserving Polish culture.

The other reason of the fact, that Holy Mary became so important for the Poles lays in the history of Polish Catholic religion:

‘We can read about the special devotion of St. Wojciech to Mary in his old-est biographies. The first castle-chapel of Mieszko I in Ostrów Lednicki was de-voted to the God’s Mother, the Gniezno cathedral since the year 1000 has been entitled under the name of The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary (…), we cannot forget about the fact, that two great Poles – the blessed Pope John Paul II and cardinal Stefan Wyszyński were eager worshipers of Mary. Because of their confidence in her, and their personalities they had a huge influence on the Polish Cult of Holy Mary.’18


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It is hard to tell which of these reasons mentioned above was the most im-portant for the Holy Mary Cults extension, and if there are no more. However, we do think that these reasons – cultural and historical combined together, cre-ated the positive atmosphere for the Cult to grow.

Who is Mary for the Polish Catholics?For the understanding of the specific position of the Holy Mother in Po-

land the essential thing is to understand who exactly Mary for the Poles is. We would like here to show some of the roles that are ascribed to her in our culture.

From theological point of view, the Holy Mary Cult was not obvious. In its early beginnings the cult is said to be started by common people cult in the 3rd c. The first dogma connected to Mary was about the Immaculate Conception, announced in 649. The next one was established not before 185419, although the interpretations connecting Holy Mary to the maiden from the Canticle of Canticles belong to the early Christian writers (4th–5th cc.) such as Ephrem the Syrian, Aurelius Ambrosius (St Ambrose), Epiphanius of Salamis or Peter Chrysologus20.

For the manor (village people) from the 19th and the first half of the 20th c. she was the house miss, not so much a Queen and not a Mother, but a sensitive, unable to do evil things miss, beautiful virgin walking with bare feet, so close to people and in the same time being higher in hierarchy and pleading with God for goods for the villagers, able to rescue even bad people from hell sentence, able to change God’s rules21.

She was (and is until now) also called the Queen of Poland and all Poles, Queen of Poland and Mother of all Poles:

1. 15th c. – Jan Długosz (Polish Medieval chronicle writer) called Mary the Queen of the Whole World and Us (Poles);

2. second half of the 16th c. – Grzegorz from Sambor called Mary the Queen of Poland and Poles;

3. 1st of April 1656 – King Jan Kazimierz took an oath:

‘The oath of King Jan II KazimierzAnd the States of the Polish RepublicSworn under the name of the NationIn front of the Miraculous Pictureof the Holy Mary the Gracious in Lviv Cathedral

Lviv, the 1st of April 1656


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The Great Mother of God – Human, oh the purest Lady!Me, Jan Kazimierz, because of your Son, the King of Kings, mercy am the King,

while kneeling under yours the holiest feet I take. You for the patron saint of me and for the Queen of my lands and I pled for Your

special care and defence for myself and my Polish Kingdom, as well as [its] dukedoms (...) and also the armies of both of the nations and whole my nation itself. Because of all of Your goodness for me I feel eager passion to serve You along with my nation and I swear to You and Your Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, with the name of me, the rulers and the nation that your grace I will spread among all my Kingdom. (...)’22.

4. 26 September 1956 – Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński along with over a mil-lion of Polish Catholics took an oath to the Holy Mother as the Queen of Poland and Polish people during the pledge prayer, promised to lead the life as she lead – in absolute obedience to God, in pureness and goodness.

‘Great Mother of God – Human!Virgin Mother of God, God – Famed Mary!The Queen of the World and Polish Queen!Three centuries after the joyful day when you became the Queen of Poland, we,

the Children of Polish Nation and your Children, blood from the blood of our ances-tors stand in front of you, fulfilled with the same feelings of love, allegiance and hope that inspirited our Fathers. (...)

We today are renewing vows given to you by our ancestors taking you for our patron Saint and for the Queen of the Polish nation. Us, ourselves and all Polish lands as well as all People of Poland we entrust with your special care and defence. (...)

We stand in front of you fulfilled with gratefulness that you have been the Helpful Virgin among the grace and excruciating failures of numerous Deluges. (...)

Nation says: The Queen of Poland we vow! The Mother of God’s grace! (...) To guard the gift of grace as a source of God’s Life

in every Polish soul we vow!(...)Nation says: The Queen of Poland we vow!The Victorious Lady of Luminous Mount! We swear to fight under your flag the

hardest fight with our national vices. (...)Lead us through your subject Polish land to the Gates of Heaven’s Homeland. And

in the very beginning of the New life, you yourself shall show us Jesus, the blessed fruit of thy womb.’23

These oaths (cited in shortage as examples) are meaningful. In the Mid-dle Ages the world – the views of people, always built on the concept how the world works and on the information, ideas and theories passed by (sometimes simplified) the authorities of the epoch, – was hierarchical. Of course, the place


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of Holy Mary on the hierarchy ladder was (officially) beneath the God and the Son and higher than all the people. Although she was a close person for the all classes, for the villagers she was a mansion miss more than a Queen, and for the higher classes she was a Queen. There are also some traces, that sometimes she has been treated as a person even more “powerful” than God the Father – as long as she was able to change God’s rights and sentences. In these oaths we also can clearly see that worshiping Mary is strongly connected with the Polish identity and how she is believed to has acted in our history.

Displays and elements of the Cult, features of the CultAs an evidences of the Holy Mary Cult we would like to present some dis-

plays of the Polish Holy Mary Cult.

1. Hymns and laudatory chants “Bogurodzica” (Godmother) is known as the oldest Polish religious song,

sung by knights during the Battle of Grunwald. Tadeusz Lehr-Spławiński24 claims it to be written in the 11th c., the oldest notation, registration of it comes from the 15th c.25. Most of researchers along with A. Brückner, J. Woronczak and H. Feicht claim it to exist from the 13th c.26 This song connected with Holy Mary is taught and analysed in schools at every level of obligatory education and known to play a great role in Polish historical victories:

Text: Virgin, Mother of God, God-famed Mary! Ask Thy Son, our Lord, God-named Mary, To have mercy upon us and hand it over to us! Kyrie eleison! Son of God, for Thy Baptist’s sake, Hear the voices, fulfil the pleas we make! Listen to the prayer we say, For what we ask, give us today: Life on earth free of vice; After life: paradise! Kyrie eleison!27

‘Maryjo Królowo Polski’ (‘Mary the Queen of Poland’) – a well-known appeal hymn connected with the sanctuary in Luminous Mount:


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Mary, Queen of PolandMary, Queen of PolandI am on your side, I rememberI am on your side, I rememberI stay awake

Of course, there are more songs and hymns to Holy Mary in Poland, but these two we think to be the most important as long as they are strongly con-nected to Polish history, as ‘Bogurodzica’, or have the apostrophe to Mary as a Queen of Poland.

2. Numerous of names given in prayers, literature and texts: The oldest titles given to her come from the Bible: she was called Mother28

or Lord’s Mother29. From Gabriel we know her as the Virgin30 and she called herself the Servant of the Lord31. There are a lot of names for her known from the Eastern Church lists, and the number is 36832. In the Polish version of Litany of Loreto there are 50 names – original 49 were added with The Queen of Po-land. J. P. Migne in his ‘Patrologia Latina’ gives us 845 names for Mary that were known in medieval times33. Then in the epoch of baroque 188 new names and titles of Mary were born34. Although some countries were first in enthroning her as a Queen (Hungary – the year 1000, Portugal – the 12th century, Spain – the year 1616), in Polish tradition worshiping of Mary was popular all across the country, among all the people. From the folk culture came names connected to Her life such as Mother Full of Pain, or Mary the Assumpted. Also, there are sanctuaries or places connected to Her where her holy paintings or figures are placed: Częstochowska (Mary of Częstochowa), Gidelska (Mary of Gidle), Licheńska (Mary of Licheń). And of course there are names that come from the seeking for God in everyday life – places, meteorology, calendar: the Snow Mother of God, the Candelmas Mother of God, the Herbal Mother of God, the Bridge Mother of God, the Seed Mother of God, the Thunder Mother of God35. These enumerated above and especially the names such as the Mother of Mercy, the Believers Help, the Graceful Mother, the Merciful Mother, the Mother of Consolation and Solace, the Queen of Peace, the Mother of Hope reflect the need and the actual problems of society and the believe that She can stand for those who pray to Her. When Her higher position in hierarchy is to be empha-sised she is called the Queen of Angels, the Queen of Martyrs, the Queen of Heaven and Earth.


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3. Religious holidays and celebrationsThere are plenty of celebrations and holidays directed to Mary. Especially,

the tradition to dedicate May to the Holy Virgin (the first time May was called the month of Mary in 1549 in the German book entitled “The Spiritual May”). The initiator of May-celebrations was father Ansolani, the member of the Soci-ety of Jesus who lived between the 17th and 18th c. The year 1837 was the year of the first May-celebration in Poland36. Although holidays dedicated to Mary are taking place all over the Catholic world, in Poland they have their own, some-times better known than the official names. For example: Annunciation (25th of March) has been called the Spring Mother of God Day; the Assumption (15th of August) – the Herbal Mother of God Day; the Birth of Holy Mary (8th Sep-tember) – the Seed Mother of God Day. All of these days are important dates in the agrarian calendar37. These names are a sign of the huge importance of Holy Mary for people, who in that way were inviting Her to their everyday life and its most important moments. These also show the early and strong connection of the Holy Mary celebrations with popular piety. During all celebrations there is a huge range of official (approved by the Church) and not so official rites – con-secrating bunches of herbs (especially those symbolising virginity and fertility like mugwort or myrtle).

4. The cult of icons, paintings, sculptures, sanctuariesAll over the country, there are lots of images, sculptures and paintings of

Mary. Small chapels decorate places like crossroads or trees with Mary’s figures inside. There is a tradition to put flowers in there, to light candles. Those images which are known to be sacred, veracious (icons not made by a human), those which cause miracles are popular places of pilgrimage. There are a lot of sanctu-aries all over the country, and even those figures, statues or paintings from small village chapels are mostly known in their neighbourhood to be miraculous. Mary’s miracles are especially connected with health curing. There is a tradition to dress paintings or figures during special occasions or celebrations. Some of the pictures, especially this from Częstochowa are travelling all over the country and “visiting” churches which is another occasion to celebrate the cult.

Most of the acts of sensualism are connected with figures and images – kissing, touching, and rubbing. For example the image of Our Lady of the Gate of Down (Polish name Matka Boska Ostrobramska) is located in Vilnius (Lith-uania) and it dates from the 17th c. (the author is unknown). Until today people from Poland and Lithuania believe it is a miraculous icon. It is also one of the


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very important symbols of Christianity in Lithuania and Poland. In the past, Vilnius was a Polish town and this is why the icon exists in Polish culture as an important religious symbol. It is represented in Polish tradition by the Polish poet Adam Mickiewicz, who wrote about the power of this icon in his poem “Pan Tadeusz”. The festival of Matka Boska Ostrobramska is on the 16th of No-vember38.

The oldest Mary’s image is the figure of the Holly Mother from Ludźmierz, a village in Southern Poland, in a region called Podhale. The sanctuary was established by the Order of Cistercians in the 13th c. The figure is called “Matka Boska Ludźmierska” and also “Gaździna Podhala”, which means “the Hostess of Podhale Region”. The figure is 125 cm tall and it dates from the 14th–15th cc. It was established by a Hungarian merchant after he almost drowned in the swamp. Being in the swamp he saw the Holly Mother who showed to him the way out. After this miracle he decided to establish a figure. The main festival of Our Lady from Ludźmierz is celebrated on the 15th of August39.

5. Monasteries and Sanctuaries:a. CzęstochowaThe monastery “Mons Clara” (Polish name Jasna Góra) is situated in

Częstochowa – a town in central Poland and belonging to the Order of Saint Pauli. It is a very important centre of Marian Devotions and a main destination for Catholic pilgrims for hundreds of years. The monastery was established in the 14th c. (1382), by Prince Wladyslaw Opolczyk, who invited the Order of Saint Paul from Hungary to Poland. Two years later, he brought the icon of the Black Madonna from Russia to Częstochowa. In 1430, the monastery was at-tacked and plundered. During this attack the face of the Holly Mother was hurt with a knife and – according to the legend – the wound started to bleed.

The age and the origin of the icon are not clear. The painting is admired and regarded as miraculous by Catholics and Orthodox Christians. This is also the most popular image of the Holly Mother in Poland. The icon presents the Holly Mother with Jesus on her left arm (Hodegetria) – they both look very seri-ous and pensive. According to the legend, it was one of 70 paintings painted by Luke the Evangelist, on the board of the table on which the holly family used to have their meals in Jerusalem, 2000 years ago. The icon was brought from Je-rusalem to Russia in the 12th c., and before that it had visited Bulgaria, Moravia and Bohemia. In 1372, Western Russia was conquered by Poland and the icon was brought to the Polish lands. In 1434, the icon was renovated in Kraków and then it lost its Greek Eastern character. In 1655, the Polish king Jan Kazimierz


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took vows and called the Black Madonna “The Queen of Poland”. The story was described by Henryk Sienkiewicz in his novel “The Deluge”. In 1717, the icon was crowned by Pope Clement XI as a miraculous icon. In 1931, Pope Pius XI set the main celebration of the festival of the Holly Mother on 26th of August.

b. GidleThe sanctuary in Gidle was established in the 17th c. as a Dominican Or-

der’s monastery. There is a church with a chapel in baroque style near the mon-astery. The small figure of the Holly Mother (around 10 cm) with Jesus on Her left arm (this is Hodegetria) made of stone is placed on the altar in the chapel. According to the legend, it was ploughed up by the peasant Jan Chechek, who found the figure and hid it in his house. In a short time all his family became blind. There was a woman in the village, who was helping them. One day she found the figure in their house and understood that this was a holly thing. She took the figure to a small chapel in the village. The figure was washed with the water, which was used for washing the eyes of the Chechek family – they could see again. It was only one from many miracles performed by the figure. The figure was crowned in 1923 by one of the Polish bishops40. Every year in the first weekend of May, the figure is washed with holly water, which is used for curing, mainly illnesses of eyes. Nowadays, Dominicans from Gidle remind pilgrims that water will not work if people do not pray to the Holly Mother – a prayer is the most powerful thing.

6. Medallions, rosaries, scapularsThere is an observable popularity of medallions and scapulars, and also

rosary rings. They are signs of personal relationship between a person and Holy Mary, a request for Her care and help. Although they are treated as magical amulets or artefacts bringing luck and protecting from demons, scapulars were very popular during the World War II. People believed that they saved the lives of the soldiers that wore them.

7. Folk legends There are lots of apocryphal stories and legends about the life of Holy Mary.

In some places in Poland Mary is believed to be formed before Eve from a flow-er blossom, too delicate for Adam who rejected Her. God, however, had a plan and told Mary that She would play the most important role in human history.


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8. InternetThe internet could also be the source to give ethnologists the possibility to

experience the atmosphere connected with the Holy Mary Cult. The Cult is said and believed to be widely popular among the internet users41. There also are lots of internet pages related to Holy Mary.

ConclusionAs time passes, some of motifs of the Holy Mary Cult disappear (like the

vision of Her as a mansion miss, which started to disappear since the act of granting land to the peasants in the 19th c.), and some new appear (like the oath from 1956). The Cult might not flourish abruptly just in the early beginning of Catholicism in Poland42 (Catholicisation itself was a long process) but nowa-days it is undeniably a part of Polish culture and one of the most important and recognisable features of Polish religious life. Even though every year more and more Poles declare to be believing but not practicing Catholics or to be even atheists, and, on the other hand, a lot of them have wide religious conscious-ness and knowledge, and so not for all the characteristics of the Holy Mary Cult would be suitable, we all have grown in a similar cultural atmosphere connected with this issue which in the socialisation process shaped our vision of Mary, the Holy Mother. For the believing Catholics the Holy Mary Cult is a very impor-tant, deep and meaningful part of the religious life – her maternity, the miracle of virginity etc43. The most important conclusion is that Mary, the Holy Mother, has been a very important person in Polish national life (not only among the people of deep faith) and also for Polish identity. It means that, according to the place of the Cult in history, during the process of laicisation forgetting about the Holy Mother Cult could be destructive for the Polish feeling of identity (it is im-possible to put one piece of the puzzle from ones the culture without damaging the self-identity) even if it would be replaced with something else. It also means that some scandals and problems that appear during the international coopera-tion (like scandals connected with the concerts of the pop-star Madonna) must be considered in the context of this feature of Polish culture. What is more, we can expect that as it was in the past, a lot of political and historical events that will happen in Poland will have religious dimension.


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NOTES

1 See: Czarnowski, S. Kultura religijna wiejskiego ludu polskiego. – In: Czarnowski, S. Dzieła, N. Assorodobraj, S. Ossowski (red.), PWN, Warszawa 1956, vol. 1 pp. 96– 97.

2 Krasnowska-Dyńka, J. Królowa maja. – <http://www.opoka.org.pl/biblioteka/P/PR/echo–2011–18-majuwaju.html> 01.10.2012; all quotations from Polish are translated by the au-thors of this article.

3 Czarnowski, S. Op. cit., pp. 88–89. 4 The baptizing of Mieszko I, the Duke of Poland, from Piast dynasty, and his court took place

probably on 14th of April, 966. It started the mission of conversion in the country that was continued after the church’s independent hierarchy was established in the year 1000. – See: Korczak, L. Średniowiecze. – In: Kronika Polski. Eds. A. Nierubiec, Z. Klimaszewska. War-szawa 2000, p. 41; Szczur, S. Historia Polski, średniowiecze. Kraków, 2005, pp. 49–50; 63–64; 90–92.

5 The division made by S. Czarnowski, check: Tomicki, R. Etnografia polski przemiany kul-tury ludowej, M. Biernacka, M. Frankowska, W. Paprocka (red.). Ossolineum, Wrocław-Warszawa-Kraków-Gdańsk-Łódź, 1981, vol. 11, p. 29.

6 Zmiany w zakresie wiary i religijności Polaków po śmierci Jana Pawła II. Compiled by R. Boguszewski. Warszawa 2012, p. 2 – <http://www.cbos.pl/SPISKOM.POL/2012/K_049_12.PDF>

7 Czarnowski, S. Op. cit.8 Tomicki, R. Etnografia polski przemiany kultury ludowej, M. Biernacka, M. Frankowska, W.

Paprocka (red.). Ossolineum, Wrocław-Warszawa-Kraków-Gdańsk-Łódź, 1981. vol. 11.9 Tokarska-Bakir, J. Obraz osobliwy. Hermenutyczna lektura źródeł etnograficznych. Wielkie

opowieści. Kraków, 2000, pp. 214–270.10 Klimczak A. Pobożność ludowa jako determinant konsolidacji tożsamości wyznanio-

wej. – <http:// www.magazyn.ekumenizm.pl/content/article/20070806103904947.htm> 02.10.2012.

11 Kracik, J. Święte obrazy wśród grzesznych Sarmatów. Ze studiów nad receptą kultowego dziedzictwa. – Nasza Przeszłość, 1991, No 76, p. 142.

12 Dobroczyński, B. Polski katolicyzm – jak kamień wypalany od środka. – <http://www. przegladpowszechny.pl/2010/01/29/katolicyzm-jak-kamien-wypalany-od-srodka/> 02.10.2012.

13 „Europe| Kaczynski burial sparks controversy“. UPI. 15 April 2010. Archived from the origi-nal on 23 June 2010. Retrieved 27 July 2010.

14 Raina, P. Jasnogórskie Śluby Narodu Polskiego 1656,1956, 1966. Warszawa, 2006, p. 5.15 Szypuła, S. Historia kultu maryjnego w Polsce – Łódź. – <http://www.retsat1.com.pl/

wzoremJezus /prace_przyjaciol/StSzypula_Kult_Maryjny.html> 02.10.2012.16 Krasnowska-Dyńka, J. Op. cit.17 Szypuła, S. Op. cit.18 Krasnowska-Dyńka, J. Op. cit. 19 Niżyński, W. Teologia kultu maryjnego w katolicyzmie, in: Kult Maryjny w Kościele rzym-

skokatolickim w Polsce i w Rosyjskim Kościele prawosławnym w Rosji, Warszawa–Moskwa, 1989.

20 Rosik, M. Misterium miłości zaklęte w pieśni. – <https://sites.google.com/site/orygenesorg-blog/Home /czytelnia/misterium-milosci-zaklete-w-piesni> 02.10.2012.


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21 Czarnowski, S. Op. cit., pp. 96–97.22 Translated from Latin by Józef Łepkowski (1855). Cited after: Podsiad, A. Bogarodzico –

Dziewico. Polski Almanach Maryjny. Warszawa, 1987, pp. 55–57.23 Raina, P. Op. cit., pp. 29–32.24 Szypuła, S. Op. cit.25 Bogurodzica. Compiled by R. Mazurkiewicz. – <http://staropolska.pl/sredniowiecze/poez-

ja_religijna /bogurodzica/bogurodzica.html> 02.10.2012 (hereinafter: Bogurodzica).26 Bogurodzica27 Bogurodzica28 All quotations from the Holy Bible are taken from Internet – English edition: http://www.

drbo.org/; Luke 2,33–34; John 19,25–27.29 Luke 1,43.30 Luke 1,27.31 Luke 1,38.32 Prassl, F. Die lateinischen Marienhymnen des Mittelalters und ihr Bezug zu Byzantinischen

Quellen. – In: Auf der Suche nach der Seele Europas. Marienfröm-migkeit in Ost und West. Studientagung der PRO ORIENTE-Sektion Salzburg aus Anlass ihres 20j ährigen Bestehens, 7. und 8. Oktober 2005. Ed. P. L. Hofrichter. Innsbruck–Wien, 2007, pp. 101–131.

33 Migne, J. P. Indices, generals, simul et specials. Patrologia Latina, vol. 219, 2, 1862, pp. 502–522.

34 Hierzenberger, G., O. Nedomansky. Księga objawień maryjnych od I do XX wieku. «Przy-bywam uratować świat». Warszawa, 2003, pp. 618–624.

35 Wojtczak A. W sprawie tytułów maryjnych i ich rozumienia. – Perspectiva. Legnickie Studia Teologiczno-Historyczne, 2010, No 9.2, pp. 257–289.

36 Krasnowska-Dyńka, J. Op. cit.37 Rok, B. Poszukiwanie form uniformizacji życia duchowego w rozwoju kultu maryjnego w

dawnej Rzeczypospolitej. – Culture, History, Globalization, 2012, No 11, pp. 59–65.38 Jackowski, A. Miejsca święte Rzeczypospolitej. Leksykon, Kraków, 1999, pp. 358–361.39 Ibid., pp. 177–179. 40 Ibid., pp. 70–71. 41 For example: Szypuła, S. Op. cit.; Dobroczyński, B. Op. cit.; Dlaczego Kościół wienien czcić

Maryję?. – <http://partenos.nowyekran.pl/post/19167,dlaczego-kosciol-winien-czcic-mar-yje> 02.10.2012; Rozmowy z Cieniem: Dlaczego Matka Boża?. – <http://tsole.nowyekran.pl/post/71230,rozmowy-z-cieniem-dlaczego-matka-boza> 02.10.2012 (hereinafter: Rozmowy z Cieniem).

http://www.przegladpowszechny.pl/?s=Kult+Maryjny42 Rok, B. Op. cit., p. 59.43 Rozmowy z Cieniem.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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••According to the topic of the IP programme „Standards of Everyday Life in the

Middle Ages and in Modern Times“ in this article we would like to present the issue which in some way connects both the Middle Ages and the present times. As long as the Holy Mary Cult, part of widely discussed in ethnography concept of Polish popular piety, is undeniably important element of the everyday life of lots of Poles, our me-dia and culture, it is impossible to understand Polish culture without this element. Of course, we consider culture as a complex and variable concept, and the Holy Mary Cult as only a small part of it, although we find it interesting and important to describe this one part. To understand the Holy Mary Cult and the specific position of Mary, the Holy Mother in Polish religious life we would search through its roots and first dis-plays which can be found in the Middle Ages (some of the theories explaining the spe-cific position of Mary refer to arguments and proofs dating back even to pre-Christian times in Poland – the before 10th century), then we will try to show how they influence modern times. Of course, the Holy Mother is an important person for all Catholics all over the world, but as Paweł Wiatrak, a priest, a Siedlce diocese minister of the Holy Mary Cult says: „(...) lots of foreigners tell us about our specific honour for Mary. We surely stand out above other European catholic countries.“

Keywords: Holy Mary Cult, popular Christianity, Catholicism.


Documents

THE SPECIFIC POSITION OF MARY, THE HOLY MOTHER OF GOD IN POLISH RELIGION / Wyjątkowa pozycja Maryi, Matki Boga, w polskiej obrzędowości popularnej