I am in Poland, as I am every July, for the Tertio Millennio Seminar, a three-week meeting on Catholic social teaching and the thought of John Paul II. As we often do, we began our seminar with Mass in the St. Leonard’s chapel. It was there that a newly ordained Karol Wojtyla offered his first Mass on November 2, 1946.
The chapel dates from the 11th century. Built in the Romanesque style, it has little decoration beyond the arches and columns. It does, however, contain the mortal remains of some of Poland’s great heroes, and their sarcophagi provide all the ornament the chapel requires.
King Jan III Sobieski, who saved Europe by defeating the Ottoman Turks at the Battle of Vienna (1683), is buried there alongside his wife. Sobieski’s predecessor, King Michał, lies nearby.
The other three tombs in the chapel are the tombs of men who fought, unsuccessfully in each case, for Polish independence.
General Władysław Sikorski, the Prime Minister of the Polish government-in-exile and commander-in-chief of the Polish Army during World War II, is also buried there. Sikorski died tragically in a plane crash during the war. He was buried in England, and his remains were only permitted
Read more...
