Hello 1st of March

 

Today I am coming back - yesterday the Internet connection was so weak

In the wildnerness Saint John lived..

28 th February 2016

I visited this charming place last summer. The place is really unique and nature unspoilt.

In the middle in the forest there is a small hut where the hermit John lived for many years.  Later the hermit became Saint John and the place is popular with visitors each season but mainly in the summer.

In the place where St. john lived the small church was built. Mass is at 10 a.m. every Sunday..

 Mount Cergowa

St. John of Dukla

The life and work of St. John of Dukla

John of Dukla was born around 1414 in a middle-class Catholic family in Dukla, a city on the trade route from Poland to Hungary. According to ancient tradition, confirmed in the seventeenth century by the office of the Mayor of Dukla. At a young age John led the life of a hermit in the vicinity of Dukla, in the Zaśpit grotto and under Mount Cergowa. He joined the Friars Minor Order at mature age, already having a thorough knowledge of theology and the German language. After his ordination to the priesthood, John of Dukla held many important functions, both in monastic life and society. John of Dukla held a position of a superior monk in Krosno and Lvov monasteries and the curator of the Ruthenian Custody centre in Lvov. He also did pastoral work among German burghers gathered at the Hospital Holy Spirit Church in Lvov, where he became famous for his inspiring sermons. In 1461 he took active part in reducing the burdens for the peasants of the monastery village of Czyszki near Lvov. Driven by the desire for a more perfect religious life, closer to the Franciscan ideals, in 1463 he joined the Order of Friars Minor of the Regular Observance, known in Poland as Bernardienes, among whom he spent 21 years. He spent a significant part of his life in the monastery in Lvov, exercising the office of preacher and confessor. He also lived in Poznań for a short time. John of Dukla conducted extensive charity work. He personally visited the sick, administered sacraments to them, asked the rich to provide handouts for the poor and shared his meals with the hungry at the convent gate. On Wednesday, September 29, 1484, John of Dukla died in his Lvov monastery cell. He was buried without a coffin in a grave located in the choir of St. Bernardine of Siena and Saint Andrew the Apostle Church in Lvov.

Beatification

The growing cult of John of Dukla encouraged the Bernardine Order in Lvov to commence official efforts to initialize the official process of confirming his sainthood by the ecclesiastical authorities. The preparation for the beatification lasted over a hundred years and was actively supported by the Polish King Sigismund III Vasa, the Archbishop of Lvov Jan Andrzej Próchnicki and the Bishop of Cracow Marcin Szyszkowski. Eventually, Pope Clement XII approved the judgment of the Sacred Congregation of Rites and, on January 21, 1733, officially included John of Dukla among the Blessed.

Daily he read the rule, and out of love for holy poverty he wished to have no other book. It grieved him deeply to witness even the slightest violation of the rule. He himself submitted promptly and cheerfully to all the directions of his superiors. He practiced severe mortification, kept vigils in prayer through many hours of the night, was continually active as a director of souls, and practiced great devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary.

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Saint John of Dukla had the special gift of reconciling people who were at variance with each other. He also labored with great zeal to bring the schismatic Ruthenians and Armenians back to unity with the Catholic Church.

When he was nearly seventy years old, he was afflicted by God with blindness. But John bore this affliction with great patience, and did not slacken his activities until his blessed death in the year 1484. His tomb in the Franciscan church at Lwow has been glorified by many miracles. Several of the kings of Poland interested themselves in his canonization; and at the request of the people, Pope Clement XII permitted Blessed John of Dukla to be numbered among the principal patrons of the Poles and Lithuanians. Pope John Paul II canonized John in the year 1994.

Prayer of the Church:

O God, who didst adorn Blessed John, Thy confessor, with the gifts of exceptional humility and patience, graciously grant that we may imitate his example and share in his reward. Through Christ Our Lord. Amen. ( wikipedia).

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27 Reasons You Should Never Visit Poland

Biecz - fantastic destination...

27th February 2016

I visited Biecz in 2011 before I started blogging. It is a small town located in the South - East of Poland.  It is very small town but full of landmarks.

By the mid-16th century, the city was one of the largest in Poland. Being a royal city, Biecz enjoyed an economic and social Renaissance during the 14th and 15th centuries which tapered off into a gradual decline starting during the 17th century. Today, it is a small, picturesque tourist town with numerous historical monuments. 

( wikipedia.

City hall. The bell tower was constructed in 1569, while the rest of the structure was built between 1569 and 1580.

The barrel for beer from 17th century.

In Biecz there is a musuem of pharmacy which present the old medicines and herbs and the equipment of that time.

The area of Biecz has been settled periodically since the Neolithic period, though the first mentions of a named settlement date back to the 11th century. This early medieval town was approximately 500 metres (1,600 ft) from the modern one. By the 12th century, the town had become a castellany, and by the mid-14th century, it had been granted rights based on Magdeburg Law.

Biecz enjoyed a cultural and economic renaissance during the 14th and 15th centuries. Beginning in the 17th century, the town was beset by a number of natural disasters, including flooding, fires, and a plague which killed all but 30 inhabitants. The town suffered heavy population losses during World War II, including a public massacre of 200 local Jews in the market square in 1942.

House of Kromer

The Kromer House houses a cultural museum.

The Kromer House (Polish: Dom Kromera) is a 16th-century building that never actually belonged to Marcin Kromer. Built in 1519, only seven years after Kromer's birth, the building belonged to the wealthy Chodorów family.

Today the building houses a cultural museum that includes a number of important folk artifacts, art, and coins. The oldest exhibits include axeheads and related neolithic artefacts, as well as Roman and Byzantine coins, and medieval ceramics and weaponry. Other exhibits showcase historical weaponry and the day-to-day life of townspeople throughout history.

THe oldest hospital in Poland

Holy Spirit Hospital[edit]

The Holy Spirit hospital is the oldest preserved hospital in Poland.

The Hospital of the Holy Spirit (Polish: Szpital św. Ducha) is the oldest preserved hospital in Poland. The Catholic church first began establishing hospitals in Western Europe during the 8th century. The first Polish hospitals were established during the 13th century, where they were administered by various religious orders. Each hospital had an attached parish and church.

By the late 14th century, Biecz had accumulated a population of over 3,000 residents, necessitating some form of public health service. On 25 July 1395, Queen Jadwiga signed a royal edict ordering the construction of the hospital, granting tax breaks for the duration of construction, and earmarking two fiefs, a folwark, 3 fish ponds, and a town square near the city walls for construction. The budget provided by the queen for construction was one of the largest of its kind in the country.

In the 18th century, the church attached to the hospital was demolished, and in the 19th century, the hospital was renovated. The hospital continued to administer to the poor until 1950, when it was converted into a boys' boarding school. After a new school building had been built, the hospital was abandoned, and began to fall into a state of disrepair. Attempts to restore the buildings began during the 1980s, but were disrupted due to political changes in Poland. Due to difficult economic times during from 1991–97, only the walls and roofs have been preserved at present.

The hospital is in the eastern part of the city, and consists of a two-story building measuring 21 by 10.5 metres (69 ft × 34 ft). The eastern and western walls are decorated with patterns made from dark, strongly fired bricks. The eastern wall has two entries, while the west has one stone entry that has since been walled over. Above the stone entryway is a stone sculpture of the Polish coat of arms with the date 1487, that was probably moved there from the remnants of the third castle during the 17th century.( wikipedia)

I am going to visit this town this year ...

Each day is a new challenge

26th February 2016

So today it is Friday and the day is sunny one. I am sure spring is coming very fast. It is only one month and we are celebrating Easter.

My amaryllis is doing very well. I am proud of it. it has 4 flowers which look lovely

Sunrise at my place so I am ready for new challenges..

Fall in love with Poland

26th February 2016


Poland a country located in the heart of Europe. It is so varied country with beautiful mountains, green forests and Baltic Sea, In some regions the nature is unspoilt. 

This photo I took last week in the South - East of Poland because the fence is very original and not so common here.

Almond trees in Sicily - Italy

24th February 2016

I got this great photo from my friend Concetta who lives in Sicily yesterday. Concetta is an English teacher and teaches in high Junior School. The photo shows  almond trees in bloom. Racalmuto in Sicily.

 Racalmuto is a charming town with very friendly community.

charming small town.  Sicily is my holiday destination this summer.

Spanish sky

23rd February 2015

Now in Poland the days are rainy and grey. So in the morning I was dreaming about blue sky which I have seen in Spain in 2013. It was November but the sky was fantastic..

Airport in Granada

Iznalloz

Malaga

25 Things to do in Warsaw, Poland | Top Attractions Travel Guide

Gdansk - interesting place for summer holiday

23rd February 2016

 

I love travelling and I love cities which are located at the Baltic Sea. One of these cities is Gdansk -which is very old city and what is more "cradle of freedom"  Last summer walking in the street I noticed very interesting monument which commemorated Jews children.

 

 

Several months before the outbreak of the World War II, when the situation in Europe was no longer giving any hope for peace, the evacuation of Jewish children from the Nazi-dominated areas or areas which were at risk from Nazi aggression commenced. The purpose of the operation was to save the young generation from the forthcoming war.  It consisted of separating Jewish children and teenagers (about 10 000 altogether) from their families and placing them in Great Britain with the intention of subsequently settling them in the Jewish Promised Land – Palestine. This traumatic experience (many children never saw their relatives again) was for  most of the evacuees the only way to be saved from the felonious plans of the Nazis and the upsurge of anti-Semitism. The evacuation was carried out in the territories of Germany, Austria, which was a part of The Third Reich, Czechoslovakia, which was under Nazi occupation, and Poland together with the Free City of Gdansk.

 

 

 

The author of the monument in Gdansk is Frank Meisler, who, as a child, was evacuated from Gdansk. The monument in front of the Main Railway Station is the third of Meisler’s works, two similar monuments having been made for London and Berlin. Together they constitute the three parts of the story of the Jewish children’s fate. The Berlin monument, entitled “Trains to life, trains to death” depicts two groups of children – one symbolizes the saved ones, the other, the exterminated ones. Comparing the faces of the children on the monuments in Gdansk and London we notice that they are the same people: in Gdansk they are waiting to get on the train, in London they have just got off the train… The Gdansk monument was unveiled on the 6th of May 2009 in the presence of the people who, like its author, were evacuated from Gdansk during the Kindertransport operation.
In 2006 the transparent reproduction of “The Last Judgement” by Hans Memling, a Flemish painter, was placed in the large, semicircular window of the main hall of the Main Railway Station overlooking Podwale Grodzkie.

 ( wikipedia)