Every father and mother of the family should encourage children to serve God, to pray fervently, to attend Masses, to recite the litany protecting from the plague, to give a good example, to refrain from profanity and sinning. . .
It was the order of the city council in Kłodzko caused by spreading plague in 1680.
The epidemic did not pass by Wielisław. The parish priest, Jerzy Albert Kuhenhardt (1676 – 1680), and the residents of the presbytery (10 people) were the victims. It is possible that the priest himself was a cause of the plague (as Jesuit he spent a lot of time in the Order in Kłodzko where the plague killed 1479 people) or one of the residents of the presbytery (which is more probable). Jerzy Albert Kuhenhardt took care of the sick until the end (as the parish priest Miller in Szalejów Górny, who died of plague on 21/07/1680).
On the road leading to the cemetery stands mute witness to the tragedy that happened over 300 years ago.
The statue is made of sandstone, and measures about 500 cm. On the wider board of the statue there is a pedestal which supports a Tuscan-style column with square culmination in the form of shrine, the sides of which are articulated in the form of arcades. On it – stone ball with a cross. On the side walls of the finial, survived to our times relief representations: Our Lady of Sorrows (from the side of the cemetery, the inscription S. MARIA; reflecting the statue located in the main altar of the church), St. Sebastian (at the rear, faded inscription, patron of patients with infectious diseases), and St. Roch (at the rear, original inscription S. ROCHO faded, patron protecting from plague). Front relief has not survived to our times. The niche originally was filled with the image of a different material (in contrast with the others, which were carved in a solid rock). Placed on the front facade of the pedestal inscription (today partly faded): ”AD HONOREM, GLORIAM ET LAUDEM SSI TRYNITATIS ET VENERATIONEM B.V. MARIE ET TOTUS CURIAE COELESTIS HANC… ANNO MDCLXXXII” (For the glory and honor of St. Trinity and adoration of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the whole Church was carved … in 1682) suggests that St. Trinity was probably a missing painting. On the walls of the pedestal you can see reliefs showing: St. Rosalie of Palermo (on the right, the inscription: S. ROSALIA; saint protecting from plague), St. Francis Xavier (at the rear, the inscription: S. FRANCISCI XAWERIO; patron of a good death, summoned in danger of epidemic), St. Charles Borromeo (on the left, the inscription: S. CAROLO BOROMAEO; patron protecting from plague). The object is a simplified and more modest copy of votive column in Kłodzko from 1680 (next to the City Hall), although it refers strictly to the local tradition (the image of Our Lady of Sorrows).
The column originally stood in another place, where the dead of plague were buried. This place is situated on the right, on a hill where a small brick shrine stands today.
When did it come to transfer a column to the present place? Mosaic representation of the church placed in the chapel on the hill can be here some indication. The mass of the church is evidently distinguished from the adjoining belfry (as in lithography). The reconstruction of the church in 1796 was the work of one of the parish priests – Karl Roger (1792-1807). The transfer of the votive column had probably place in the early nineteenth century.
In 2013, thanks to the efforts of the parish priest, Henryk Dereń, the base of the column was reinforced and covered with sandstone slabs.
translate: D. Jabłońska