Sanctuary of the Motherhood of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Dziekanowice

Monuments

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Dziekanowice 7, 32-410 Dobczyce Tourist region: Pogórza

tel. +48 122711314

Here, in front of the image of Our Lady of Dziekanowice, the faithful have been praying for years. The painting of the Motherhood of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which is now housed in the sanctuary consecrated in the millennium year of 1966 by Archbishop Karol Wojtyła as a votive offering of gratitude for the millennium of the Baptism of Poland, dates back to the 17th century.

The first wooden church of St Nicholas the Bishop and St Mary Magdalene was founded by Casimir II the Just in the 11th–12th century, and its oldest eastern part (the presbytery) even in the 10th century and is one of the most valuable Romanesque monuments in the country and the oldest sacred building in the Polish Carpathians. In 1957, rare polychromes from the 12th century were discovered there, depicting scenes related to Christ's childhood and the figures of Michael and Gabriel (similar polychromes from this period have been found in only three other places in Poland). In the 17th century, a new church was built in place of the destroyed one, preserving the Romanesque eastern part (presbytery) built of stone blocks. In the church, a grace-famous and venerated image of the Motherhood of the Blessed Virgin Mary was placed on the side altar. Today, the image of Our Lady of Dziekanowice is located in the neighbouring large church – the sanctuary of the Mother of the Blessed Virgin Mary, built in 1960–1966 on a steep hill above the Raba River, to which everything possible from the old historic church was transferred (apart from the image of Our Lady of Dziekanowice, (in addition to the image of Our Lady of Dziekanowice, among other things a Rococo four-voice organ from 1741, a Rococo painting of St Nicholas from the 18th century, statues of saints, a Baroque crucifix with angels from the 18th century, a late Baroque processional cross, a statue of the Risen Christ, paintings from the side altars). The old historic church still retains, among other things, a Rococo pulpit, a Baroque marble baptismal font from the 17th century, late Baroque two confessionals and fourteen pews.

The cult of the image of Our Lady of Dziekanowice began in the 17th century, and numerous votive offerings, fraternal flags, strings of beads, silver dresses and crowns attest to the graces obtained through the Venerable Image. It is an image of Our Lady holding the infant Jesus on her left arm, painted on canvas by an unknown artist from the Kraków school in the type of Our Lady of Piekary with elements of Our Lady of Sand (Our Lady's head bent down to the infant). In the painting, the Virgin Mary, with dark eyes radiating deep thoughtfulness and love, points with her right hand to Jesus, who smiles gently and looks lovingly towards the Mother while extending his right hand in a gesture of blessing, in his left holding a sphere topped with a cross. In 1943, the Holy See gave the image of Our Lady of Dziekanowice the title of Motherhood of the Blessed Virgin Mary. In 1991, during his pilgrimage to Poland, the Holy Father John Paul II consecrated the crowns for Our Lady of Dziekanowice, and the Miraculous Image was crowned in the same year by Cardinal Franciszek Macharski.

Next to the church is an 18th-century wooden bell tower with a post structure, sloping walls, and a shingled tent roof. It has three bells, including the historic bell of St Valentine with the interesting Latin inscription 'Non Germanus me fecit 1765' (No German made me 1765). The churchyard probably dates from the same period as the bell tower.

The main indulgence feast at the sanctuary is the Feast of the Motherhood of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which falls on the first Sunday after 11 October. Other indulgence feasts are celebrated on 22 July, the feast of St Mary Magdalene, and on 6 December, St Nicholas Day.