Kościół pw. Świętego Maksymiliana Marii Kolbego
Churches of Kraków
Church (Roman Catholic), Mistrzejowice district. Architect: Józef Dutkiewicz.
History
The Church of St Maximilian Maria Kolbe stands on Osiedle Tysiąclecia in Mistrzejowice. At the end of the 1960s a new housing estate began to grow here, but there was no church and no religious instruction. The problem was reported to the Curia by Father Józef Kurzeja, curate of the parish in Raciborowice, to which old Mistrzejowice belonged. He began travelling to the estate to say Mass, and in 1970 a hut was put up in a small acacia grove, which the new parishioners called the Green Hut (Zielona Budka).
The authorities tried to dissuade the priest from founding a parish: he faced 10 court cases and 26 misdemeanour hearings. He had no intention of giving in, as he was supported by Cardinal Karol Wojtyła and the people of Nowa Huta. Permission to build the church was obtained on 22 April 1976. Four months later, on 15 August, Father Kurzeja died at the age of 39 and did not live to see the church consecrated. His funeral turned into one of the larger demonstrations by the people of Nowa Huta, and on 4 May 2005 his beatification process began. The parish was erected by Karol Wojtyła on 4 October 1976, and with the consent of Pope Paul VI, Maximilian Maria Kolbe became its patron.
Construction lasted from 1976 to 1983, to a design by Józef Dutkiewicz. The walls were clad with slabs of white Pińczów stone, and red Szydłowiec sandstone was used for the steps. The first Mass was held at Easter, on 3 April 1983. The church was consecrated by John Paul II on 22 June 1983, during his second pilgrimage to Poland, and about 400,000 faithful took part in the ceremony. The materials for the floor of red Swedish granite and for the altar of white Carrara marble were given to the parish by John Paul II in 1982.
Above the main altar rises a 5.9-metre sculpture of Christ Crucified, from whose right eye runs a golden tear funded by the parishioners. Beside it stands the figure of St Maximilian; the flames enveloping its lower part recall the fire of the Auschwitz crematoria. All the sculptures in the church were made by Kazimierz Gustaw Zemła. During martial law and in the 1980s, Father Kazimierz Jancarz celebrated Masses for the Homeland in the lower chapel, and in August 1988 it hosted the sessions of the first independent International Human Rights Conference.
Did you know?
The Green Hut still exists. It stands in the church grounds on the side of the tram loop, and before it was painted green, it sheltered SS men guarding prisoners of the KL Plaszow camp.