“Oh Mary you are worshiped by the holiest Austrian house of arch prince and emperor in Vienna. Called many names in temples where you provide us with your grace. Also in Stary Wielisław in Czechia where you are a blessing for the sick.”
A passage from a sermon given in Stary Wielisław on the 8the of September 1676
by Abraham a Santa Clara a preacher of the imperial court in Vienna.
The church in Stary Wielisław is one of the oldest in Kłodzko county. Supposedly, it has existed since the 10th century although sources mention it for the first time in 1300. As far back as then it must have been a place of significance in the region because pope Boniface VIII in his bull made it a pilgrimage church and called it ‘Heavenly Nest’. Possibly then the miraculous figurine of the Virgin Mary was housed there which, according to a legend, was sculpted by a local peasant Schneider.
In 1428 the church was pillaged and burnt by the Hussites (only the figurine was to remain safe). It was quickly rebuilt. Already in 1435 the parson of Wielisław chaired the enthronement of a new parish priest in Bystrzyca. Another evidence is information from 1438 and 1439 concerning new bells in the church (with the name of its patron St. Catherine). A trace of that 15th century building is a gothic, pentagonal presbytery with a cross shaped – vault and 4 buttresses, preserved collator boxes (over the sacristy and on the opposite side) with separate entrances (at the back of the church) for village owners and church sponsors. A church tower was built the following years (1524). The biggest bell, which called the faithful and warned them against danger, was hung there.
Pillages (e.g. in 1575, parson Fechtner times) and persecution from protestants probably caused building of a wall around the temple. A remarkable gate house (1569) stands from the fortification. Within it, around the house of God, there was a parish churchyard. The church in Stary Wielisław effectively resisted the tide of Protestantism. Whereas in 1577 it was one of the five Catholic parishes, in 1618 when the Thirty Years’ War broke out it was the last one in the whole couty. After reclaiming those lands, a local parson Heironymous Heck was entrusted with a mission of re-establishing Catholicism by the Austrian emperor.
Next parsons made numerous efforts to bring the church’s pilgrimage nature. Johann Friedrich Ruppert (1644 – 1666) published first written reports about Virgin Mary of Wielisław miraculous acts of grace.
Copperplates published in the middle of the century in Augsburg depict Virgin Mary of Wielisław as “Full of mercy Mary visited by people for she does miracles”. At the time the 14th century figurine was to be moved from the side to the main altar where it was worshiped by a greater and greater number of pilgrims.
At the beginning of the 18th century Georg Franz Brase (1680 – 1713) described miraculous beginnings of the church ‘as a result of divine intervention’ and another parson Dawid Siesmann (1713 – 1729) wrote Marianisher Ehrenschall in which he gathered information about miracles done by Virgin Mary of Wielisław.
The efforts of both priests for granting the church papal indulgences were successful. In 1723 pope Innocent XIII first made a rulling on the figurine as ‘an act of grace’, then issued a consistorial decree entitling the church as ‘full of grace’ and advising particular worship of Virgin Mary of Wielisław. Since then processions of pilgrims visited the place.
It was noted that in the years 1729 – 1763 as many as 330 votive offers came to the church (!). Small, one nave (present central nave) temple became too tight for the faithful.
In 1776 first stage of rebuilding was finished. Masses of the faithful could fit in the three – nave church with emporia above the aisles making a solemn ambience for worship at the same time. In 1775 works on a new altar started. A document (11.04.1775.) preserved in Prague archives contains dean’s request to the curate of Kłodzko so that he would allow selling votive offers because alter’s ornaments’ cost was 500 thalers whereas only 400 were collected from offers.
Three-tier alter is made of wood. Stock list of the church from 1776 mentions also bars with two iron gates and four heavy hoops in the presbytery which ‘guarded the miraculous figurine during the night’.
The temple was reconstructed again in the late 90’s of the 18th century. Karl Röger’s epitaph says that during his ministrations as a parson ‘the church was extended’. Among others the works joined the tower (abutting the west wall so far) to the building. An entrance with a stone portal and an image of patron saint of the church St. Catherine was made in the tower. North elevation was alsoe changed by implementing symmetry of fenestration and emphasizing main axis with magnificent stairs and a portal (date inscribed – 1796). Building of cloisters with seven shrines depicting Our Lady of Sorrows and Way of the Cross stations (renovated in 1816) also started. The church remained unchanged to present times.
At the same time the fourth smallest classicism style alter was placed in the north aisle (1801).
After World War Two the parson of Polanica took care of the church. In 1972 the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary took care.
In 2000 cardinal Henryk Gulbinowicz the metropolitan of Wrocław archdiocese revived Our Lady of Sorrows Sanctuary in Stary WIelisław. A year later it was elevated to the status International Sanctuary. The ceremonies were led by cardinal Luigi Pogia from Vatican an emissary of John Paul II. Today relics of the Holy Cross, St. Catherine of Alexandria, a replica of the nail from the Cross, and relics of John Paul II are kept in the church.
translate: R. Augustyniak