By Irene Lagan
Herald Staff Writer
(From the issue of 10/16/03)

In the heart of Cracow, Poland, the spires of St. Mary’s Church dominate the skyline. Every hour, on the hour, a trumpeter emerges to mark the time with a melody that breaks mid-note in commemoration of the 11th century watchman whose throat was pierced with an arrow as he warned the city of an approaching Tatar invasion. The tradition is a testimony to the character of the Polish people, whose tenacity and faith have enabled the nation to rebuild itself after invasions, occupations and partitions.

Enclosed within the ancient protective walls is the largest public square on the Continent, along with shops, restaurants, theatres, period architecture and resplendent churches. The vibrant faith of the Polish people is evidenced by the numbers of people who frequent the many churches throughout the day.

Among the lasting contributions of this Holy Father’s pontificate is his emphasis in the priority of culture. Pope John Paul II teaches that culture, the ideas to which a people subscribe, and the object of their worship reflected and constituted in language, literature and art, is what drives history. A playwright and poet, the pope has repeatedly sought to evangelize by engaging the culture.

The small city, a bastion of Polish history and culture, is the place where Karol Wojtyła, now known as Pope John Paul II, received his formation as a student of culture, as a priest and pastor, a philosopher and theologian and as one of the world’s greatest spiritual fathers and leading intellects.

In Cracow, Pope John Paul II attended the 600 year-old-Jagiellonian University and then went on to the seminary, was ordained a priest, became a bishop and made cardinal. Unlike Warsaw, which was decimated by bombs during World War II, the structures of the centuries-old city remained in tact, thus allowing tourists to follow the familiar paths young Karol Wojtyla trod in his youthful years.

A path leading from the Old Town across the Vistula River leads to Tyniecka,10, in the Debniki district of Cracow. The Debniki district is still a working class neighborhood with ordinary homes and local markets. The basement flat where young Karol Wojtyła and his father lived in 1938 when Wojtyła began his university studies is still a home today. The house, then owned and occupied by Karol’s two surviving maternal aunts, is a short walk from the church of St. Stanislaw Kostka and a 20-minute walk from the Jagiellonian University, one of Europe’s oldest and finest centers of learning.

The Jagiellonian, founded in 1364, was for centuries a center for intellectual and cultural flourishing, claiming such notables as Copernicus.

St. Stanislaw Kostka church was built in an art deco style, the only one of its kind in Cracow. The Salesian fathers who led the parish risked their lives during the Nazi occupation by conducting underground youth programs.

When the Gestapo captured all but two of the 11 priests in 1941, the priests turned to laymen for help in forming the youth of the parish. Jan Tyranowski, the layman and mystic whose spiritual friendship made a deep and lasting impression on the Holy Father, lived in a small flat on Rozana Street, a short walk from the church. A small sign marks the site of the mystic’s home. Jan Tyranowski’s cause for canonization will likely lead to his beatification.

Also in walking distance is Kazimierz, which was the Jewish Quarter for centuries. Most of Cracow’s 70,000 Jewish residents perished in the nearby Nazi death camps of Auschwitz and Birkenau during the Nazi era. The Jewish Quarter, made famous by film director Steven Spielberg’s movie "Schindler’s List," is maintained today by a few hundred who maintain Jewish cultural heritage.

From the Wojtylas’ home in Debniki, the view of Cracow’s beloved Wawel Castle looms large over the city. Wawel Castle was home to centuries of royal families, where poets, musicians, artists and revolutionaries were often guests.

Inside Wawel castle is a cathedral where Polish saints are buried and where then-Archbishop Adam Stefan Sapieha celebrated daily Mass attended by Karol Wojtyla on his way to the University. In a crypt below the main church, Father Karol Wojtyla celebrated his first Mass.

Several blocks, from Market Square in Old Town is the archbishop’s residence at Franciszkanska, 3, where Wojtyla asked to be received as a candidate for the priesthood in 1942. On Nov. 1, 1946, Wojtyla was ordained a priest by Archbishop Sapieha in his private chapel.

Just beyond Old Town’s Florianska Gate is St. Florian’s Church, Father Wojtyla’s second parish assignment in 1948 after returning from his studies in Rome. The baroque church, damaged during war, was rebuilt immediately afterward. Despite Poland’s occupation by Stalin’s regime, parish life was vibrant. During his years at St. Florian’s Father Wojtyla had a flourishing youth ministry and drew students from the Jagiellonian, the Cracow Polytechnic and the Academy of Fine Arts.

Experiencing these sights leaves one with a rich sense of the joys, hopes, beauty, legends and history, with its tragedies, that have shaped Polish culture and the character of the man whom we know as Pope John Paul II.