The Catholic Defender: Mary Visits Gietrzwald, Poland in 1877

Cardinal Karol Wojtyła presided over the formal approval of the apparition in 1977, shortly before he became Pope John Paul II.

Considered the Ermland Lourdes (Diocese of Warmia) already in the past century, Gietrzwald goes back to the Middle Ages (founded in 5/19/1352). The patronal feast since 1500 is of Mary's birth (September 8). The miraculous image revered in Gietrzwald, mentioned first in 1505, shows Mother and Child, surrounded by angels holding a transparent with the following inscription: Ave regina coelorum, ave domina angelorum, hailing thus the queen of angels. The image was crowned in 1717.

The oldest witness to Marian devotion in Gietrzwald is a pieta dated 1425. Our Lady appeared there in the period of June 27 to September 16, 1877 to two children, Justina Schaffrinski and Barbara Samulowski. Mary's message stressed the importance of the rosary.

On September 8, Mary blessed a spring and said, “Now, the sick people can take this water for their healing.” A few days later she appeared again, blessing her own image in the small chapel and blessing those who asked for it. At the end of this apparition she said, “Pray the rosary zealously!”

Our Lady of Gietrzwald: Poland's only approved Marian appearance. Like the Woman of Lourdes, she called herself the Immaculate Conception. There is only one approved Marian apparition from Poland, and this year marks the 140th anniversary of the occurrence. It was June 27, 1877.

The oldest witness to Marian devotion in Gietrzwald is a pieta dated 1425.

Our Lady appeared there in the period of June 27 to September 16, 1877 to two children, Justina Schaffrinski and Barbara Samulowski. Mary's message stressed the importance of the rosary. Pilgrimages ensued bringing together up to two thousand people thrice a day, on Sundays up to ten thousand pilgrims, even fifty thousand on the last day of the apparitions (September 16, when a statue of Mary was blessed and put in the small chapel).

Mary presented herself as the Immaculate Conception. The recognition of this apparition, which yielded a number of conversions and healings, was not granted until 1977. This happened in the presence of the future pope, John Paul II. One of the reasons given for the late recognition is of political origin (Polish nationalism and its connection with Gietrzwald).

The shrine of the Mother of God of Gietrzwałd (GIETCH-vald) is about 135 miles north of Warsaw. It marks the one site in Poland where the Church has approved an apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Our Lady appeared in Gietrzwałd from June 27 to Sept. 16, 1877. Two Polish peasant girls testified to seeing her: 13-year-old Justyna Szafryńska, coming home from her pre-Communion examination and, three days later, 12-year-old Barbara Samulowska, while praying the Rosary. Samulowska experienced her vision at the foot of a maple tree in front of the church. She described Our Lady as seated on a throne among angels, with Jesus on her knee. When Samulowska asked who she was, she replied: “I am the Most Blessed Virgin Mary, the Immaculate Conception.” Asked what she demanded of them Our Lady replied that they pray the Rosary daily. Among other questions were two: “Whether the Church in the Kingdom of Poland would be freed and orphaned parishes in southern Warmia would have priests again?” Our Lady replied that, if people prayed fervently, the Church would not be persecuted and those parishes would regain priests.

Those last two questions refer to the pastoral conditions that existed in 1877. In 1877, there was no such thing as “Poland” except in its peoples’ hearts. In 1877, this little town was called “Dietrichswalde.” It was part of Prussia and lay near the border of the “Kingdom of Poland,” which was simply the title applied to an administrative unit of the Russian Empire, devoid of any sovereignty. Prussia and Russia, together with Austria, had collectively gobbled up swaths of Poland’s territory between 82 and 103 years earlier; a resurrected Poland would not appear on Europe’s maps for another 41 years.

Catholics in Poland lived most freely in the Austrian Partition, because the Hapsburgs were Catholics — even if they wanted to subjugate the Church to their state. Orthodox Russia generally persecuted Catholics, and this was especially the case in Poland after the failed 1863 Uprising against Muscovite rule. Otto von Bismarck was in the middle of its own Kulturkampf (1871-1887), intended to subjugate the Church to the Prussian state and to prefer Protestantism.