Sanctuary of St. Joseph - Monastery of the Discalced Carmelites, Wadowice - Obiekt

Sanctuary of St. Joseph - Monastery of the Discalced Carmelites, Wadowice

Monuments

Po lewej ceglany kościół z trójkątnym szczytem. Po prawej figura świętego i schody.

ul. Karmelicka 22, 34-100 Wadowice Tourist region: Beskid Mały i Makowski

tel. +48 338732187
tel. +48 797002372

The Carmelites arrived in the city in 1892. The current Na Górce monastery includes the monastery complex with the pilgrim house and the sanctuary of St Joseph. The shrine houses the relics of Saint Rafał Kalinowski, a Polish clergyman, prior and officer.

The founder of the monastery and its subsequent long-term prior was Saint Rafał Kalinowski. Between 1897 and 1899, the south wing of the monastery and a three-nave brick neo-Romanesque church with a four-bay nave were built. The façade of the church is simple, with a semi-circular portal crowned by a tympanum with a Carmelite coat of arms and a rosette. Above the porch is an arcade-supported music choir. In the interwar period, the monastery-seminary building was extended, with a gymnasium built between 1934 and 1936 and the west wing superstructed. In 1892, the Carmelites brought an image of Saint Joseph the Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which was placed on the altar of the makeshift monastery, the Foltyn House. When the Na Górce monastery was constructed, a new painting of St Joseph, the work of Czech painter František Bergman, was placed in its main altar.

In 2004, the Fisherman's Ring donated by John Paul II, one of the papal insignia, was fixed in an image on the saint's finger. At the same time, the church was elevated to the status of a sanctuary. It houses the relics of Saint Rafał Kalinowski, and it is possible to visit the cell where he lived and died and see the memorabilia collected from him. Also associated with the monastery are Blessed Alphonse Maria Mazurek and the servants of God Kunegunda Siwiec, Anzelm Gądek and Rudolf Warzecha.

After his First Holy Communion, Karol Wojtyła received a scapular in the shrine, which, by the will of John Paul II, was returned to the Wadowice Carmel in 2005 and is kept in a reliquary next to the altar with the relics of Blessed Alphonse Mazurek.

Today, the monks' rooms occupy the south wing of the monastery. The west wing has a kitchen and refectory, a meeting room and a library of around 20,000 volumes. In the monastery park stands a statue of St Joseph, carved in white sandstone by a master stonemason from Wadowice at the turn of the 20th century. In the 1970s, the statue was painted and a processional path surrounds the statue. In the church square stands a statue of Saint Rafał Kalinowski, carved in stone by the Carmelite Brother Kazimierz Szczecina.