Kościół pw. Błogosławionej Anieli Salawy
Churches of Kraków
Church (Roman Catholic), Krowodrza district.
History
The church on Kijowska Avenue is dedicated to Blessed Aniela Salawa, a Kraków mystic and domestic servant. She was born in 1881 in Sieprawie and came to Kraków in search of work. From 1897 she worked as a housemaid in several homes; she stayed longest, for more than 11 years, with the lawyer Edmund Fischer and his wife Maria. She was a Franciscan tertiary and recorded her spiritual experiences in a Diary, which she kept from 1916 to 1921. She died in Kraków in 1922. Her beatification took place on 13 August 1991, with John Paul II celebrating Mass in the Main Market Square.
The new parish grew out of one of the largest in the city, the parish of Our Lady of Lourdes, which had 25,000 faithful and also included the residents of the Student Village. Kraków's councillors gave permission to build the church in 1991, and a year later work began under the chief architect, Józef Dutkiewicz. The foundation stone, blessed by John Paul II at the beatification of the church's patron, was set in place by Cardinal Franciszek Macharski in 1994. Work on the interior began in 1996: the windows received stained glass by Teresa Stankiewicz, who also made the Stations of the Cross, and a sculpture of the crucified Christ by Jan Siek was placed in the chancel. The parish was also established in 1996 and entrusted to the Vincentian Fathers, the missionaries of St Vincent de Paul. Cardinal Macharski solemnly blessed the church on 27 May 2000.
Did you know?
Aniela Salawa attended school for only two years, yet in her Diary she described her mystical experiences, drawing on her reading of the classic mystics, including St John of the Cross and St Teresa of Ávila.