Poland Visit of His Eminence, Archbishop Benjamin

Archbishop Benjamin arrived at the Chopin International Airport in Warsaw in the early part of the evening of Monday, May 4 and was greeted by Archbishop AVEL of Lublin and Chelm and Archpriest Arkadiusz Mironko of the Diocese of the West. A native of Poland, Fr. Arkadiusz is attached to Holy Virgin Mary Cathedral in Los Angeles and is on the faculty of UC Riverside.

There are some significant connections between the Orthodox Church in America and the Orthodox Church of Poland. St. Patriarch Tikhon was the Bishop of Chelm before coming to North America. We also share a newmartyr, the Hieromartyr Bazyl Martysz who served both in Alaska and Pennsylvania and, after returning to Poland, became a military chaplain and was martyred for his faith. Our diocese has had several priests from Poland in addition to Fr. Arkadiusz. Archpriest Bazyl Kalinowski, and the departed Archpriests Gregory Szyrinski, and Anatoly Fedoruk.

His Eminence visited many churches and monasteries in the eastern part of Poland. Among them were the famous women’s Monastery of Sts. Martha and Mary in Grabarka, the Monastery of the Annunciation in Suprasl and the Monastery of St. Onuphrius the Great in Jableczna. The Grabarka Monastery, which dates back to the 13^th century, is a place of pilgrimage each summer. Thousands of Orthodox faithful travel there on foot from around Poland for the Feast of the Transfiguration bringing with them crosses of various sizes which they plant on the monastery grounds. The Monastery of the Annunciation dates to the early 16^th century and has been passed back and forth between the Orthodox and Catholic Churches over the years. The main church was totally destroyed in WWII and has been rebuilt with funding from the European Union. The surrounding buildings house the Suprasl Academy which boasts an impressive facility for conferences and study. The Jableczna Monastery significantly has never been closed since its founding despite the many wars that have raged since its founding in the 15^th century. It was a bastion against the Union of Brest and is also a place of pilgrimage in Poland for Orthodox Christians.

Several other smaller monastic communities were visited. One in Turkowice is home to a community of women that have adopted singing according to Byzantine chant. Their monastery was abandoned at the time of the first World War and the Revolution. The nuns fled to Russia with their most precious treasure, and icon of the Most Holy Theotokos called “Turkowice”. It has been returned and remains the treasure of the sisters. Nearby, there is a cemetery that contains a monument memorializing 600 Orthodox Christians, ages 2 – 80, that were massacred by local Roman Catholics in the 20^th century. It is a testament to the sometimes tragic history of the Orthodox in that region. To this day, farmers unearth human bones from time to time when they plow the fields in that area.

Happily, relations with the local Catholic Church, at least in Lublin, are much better. The Roman Catholic Metropolitan of Lublin received his Eminence, along with his host, Archbishop Avel. The two local hierarchs have maintained a friendly disposition towards each other and cooperate on issues that concern them both.

Lublin is also the site of a Nazi concentration camp where thousands of Jews, Poles, and others were exterminated during WWII. The camp is maintained by the government as a monument to the 80,000 who perished there.

Of great interest was the Holy Trinity Chapel of the Lublin Castle. The castle itself has its origins in the 12^th century. It dominates the hill above the Old Town. Sometime in the 14^th century, the original wooden castle was replaced by a stone one. King Wladyslaw II commissioned the decoration of the castle’s chapel with Byantine-style frescos. They witness to the deep roots the Orthodox Faith has in that region of Poland.

His Eminence and Archbishop Avel served Liturgy together for the feasts of St. Nicholas and Sts. Cyril and Methodius in local parishes. Each parish was given an icon of All Saints of America upon which were depicted, among others, St. Patriarch Tikhon and Bazyl Martysz. Archbishop Avel presented Archbishop Benjamin with an icon of the Saints of Lublin and Chelm which will be placed in Holy Trinity Cathedral, San Francisco.

Finally, Archbishop Benjamin was received by His Beatitude, Sawa, Metropolitan of Warsaw and All Poland at his residence. During the dinner, His Beatitude reflected on various persons from Poland that have enriched our church life, among them Fr. Leonid Kishkovsky and Eugene Nowik, the long-time choir director at St. Spiridon Cathedral in Seattle.

All in all, the Orthodox Church in Poland is a vibrant church with many connections to our own. Poland has, in spite of its difficult history, has taken its place among the modern nations of Europe. And, it has not forgotten the contributions its Orthodox citizens have made to its life and culture.

Local Polish press coverage of visit (in Polish):