This church was originally founded in the 13th century by Cistercians from France. According to legend, around the year 1400, a merchant lost in the nearby swamps was led to the church by a figure he discerned to be Mary. Out of gratitude, he commissioned a statue which can be found in the church today.
A regular visitor to the shrine was Karol Wojtyla, the future Pope St. John Paul II. In August 1963, in his capacity as Archbishop of Kraków, the statue slipped during a ceremony and the future pontiff caught the scepter which had fallen out of the statue’s grasp. This scene was interpreted by many as a prophecy of his upcoming papacy.
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Author’s Note
Some good information on Catholic Shrine Basilica.
-JMM