History of revelations

The battles took place in Kębło near Wąwolnica, among the forests, where the statue of the Holy Mother of God was located. By the road near the huge stone the Tatars set up a camp, where they gathered loot and held prisoners. They placed a statue of the Holy Mother of God on a huge boulder, and because they knew what respect she had been surrounded by Poles, especially the inhabitants of these regions, they made fun of her in front of the captives.

At that time the final battle between the Tatars and the heir of Wąwolnica, Otto Jastrzębczyk, took place near Głusk Opole. The flag of Khan fell. When the invaders escaping in panic were gathering loot and prisoners from Kębło,

"Over the Holy Mother of God the brightness appeared and She began to rise, on the opposite mountain a few hundred steps up she stood on a lime tree, as if coming out of the hands of the disbelievers, sometimes even more terrified Tatars, as soon as possible escaped, so that the spoils that were not on the wagons and prisoners were left without thinking about conquering the castle. After their escape, the statue of the Holy Mother of God stood on a stone.".

Looking at these events, the prisoners understood that the time of grace had come, they felt the presence of God, who had restored their freedom. This happened in the first days of September 1278. The place where the limestone and boulder remained was often visited by people, because after the Holy Mother's apparition the news of the miracle spread rapidly. At that time, a few hundred steps from this place, Otto Jastrzębczyk decided to build a wooden church, in which a miraculous statue was placed.

Soon the statue became famous for its great graces, which is why pious pilgrims with their own needs and hopes travelled to Poland from afar. The Benedictine Fathers took patronage over the Church of Our Lady in Kęble and the miraculous statue. Seeing what kind of graces people receive from their mothers, they informed their superiors from the Holy Cross about it. Fr. Chrystyn Mirecki came here to see how Mrs. Kębelska took care of her people.

"He asked the Holy See to transfer the Mother of God from Kębło to St. Adalbert's Church in Wąwolnica, as the more impressive one, because the one in Kęblów was small and destroyed, and moreover, the Benedictines had to come there every day to celebrate the services. The capital city gave such permission."

On September 8, 1700, with the consent of Pope Inocent XII, the statue of Our Lady was transferred from Kębło to the parish church in Wąwolnica in a solemn procession. The statue of Our Lady was placed on the main altar and remains in the same place until today, and because it was brought from Kębło, it is called Kębelska. It was made of a linden trunk 85 cm high and spanning at its widest point 27 cm, in an unknown Silesian or Pomeranian workshop. It is a section from the so-called series of Beautiful Madonnas, whose prototype was a stone sculpture of Beautiful Madonna from Vimperg. According to this style, the sculpture is characterized by elegance and courtly representation of the figure, subtle, regular facial drawing and richness and decorativeness in the arrangement of the drapery. The most important motif in the figurine is the presentation of the Child Jesus to the world by the Mother.
The Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Kębło has been demolished. In memory of the church, the faithful people erected a statue of Our Lady. And the stone? At first it was empty, but later a chapel was built on it by Franciszek Klempiński, a resident of Wąwolnica. On August 15, 1840, Jan Patro, parish priest, placed a statue of Our Lady in the chapel, moved from St. Mary Magdalene's Church. Then the founder of the chapel, Franciszek Klempiński, regained his sight. Similarly, Clement Figiel, a carpenter from Klementowice, touched with paralysis crawled to the altar with a miraculous statue with sincere prayer, and regained his health and went to Kębło to the place of the apparition.
This is how The Holy mother Kębelska looked after the poor, the sick and the unhappy who were resorting to her. This is how she protected people from war, slavery and plagues decimating whole families. When in 1892 the plague began to spread, parish priest Józef Pruszkowski preached from the pulpit:

"I see that over our parish we are shielded by the grace of Mary, as if we were covered by the coat of the Virgin Mary of Kębło". (parish chronicle).

The history of the Parish

The parish in Wąwolnica belonged to the diocese of Cracow. According to chronicles, there were three churches in the area. The first St. Adalbert Chapel was built within the walls of the castle. At the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries the Benedictines added a long nave and two side chapels to the main chapel. Documents from 1603 show that it was a parish church at that time. In 1700, a miraculous statue of Our Lady of Kębło was placed in it.
Next to this church, the present church of the same name was built from the western side in the years 1907-1914. After the consecration in 1928, the older church was demolished, leaving its chancel as a former castle chapel with the figure of the Holy Mother of Kębło.
Written documents confirming the existence of the parish are dated from 1325 and 1326. At that time there was a parish church in Wąwolnica and a priest who performed pastoral duties lived there. In the parish chronicle we can read that "the parson of the Wąwolnica church paid for the tithe ordered by Pope Clement V". The Church of St. Mary Magdalene in the market square, built of white stone, was a parish church until the beginning of the 17th century. Later it was used as a chapel. Originally it stood on the outskirts, but the rapidly growing city took it inside. It survived until 1849 and was mentioned by Jan Długosz in his Polish History.
The third church existed in the place where today there is a brick chapel on the road from Wąwolnica to Kębło. It was a wooden church of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It was supervised by Benedictine monks from the monastery of St. Adalbert on the castle hill.
 In 1458 Kazimierz Jagiellończyk gave the royal parish to the monks and thus the Benedictine abbey of the Holy Cross took patronage over the city and the parish. The right of patronage expired in the 19th century after the dissolution of the monastery. Until 1819 the Benedictines served the inhabitants of Wąwolnica and the surrounding villages, shaping the spiritual and material culture. They established a shelter for the elderly (confirmed by a document from 1603). They set up a parish school. In 1603 its rector was Father Marcin Jaworski. In the parish archives there are references to the parish library already from the 16th century.
After the dissolution of the Benedictine Order in 1819, Prince Adam Czartoryski received the right to patronage over the parish.
The present parish church of St. Adalbert was built in the years 1907-1914 from the money of the faithful.
JIt is a three-nave, red brick church in the Neo-Gothic style of the Vistula River. Inside, there are wooden altars in the style adapted to it: Divine Mercy, St. Francis, St. Stanislaus Kostka and St. Joseph.
In the main altar there is a statue of the Madonna from XIII/XIV century, carved in a linden tree, called the Mother of God of Wąwolnica as opposed to the statue of the Mother of God of Kębło. On both sides there are sculptures of Poles of different states, paying homage to the Mother of God.
At the top of the altar there are sculptures depicting the Holy Trinity, and on the walls of the chancel there are paintings of St. Teresa and St. Isidore.

History of Wąwolnica

Told by Priest Jan Pęzioł

Wąwolnica to jedna z najstarszych osad Lubelszczyzny. Według tradycji założycielem miasta był legendarny książę Krak, właściciel Krakowa, rezydujący na zamku na Wawelu. Dlatego też ówczesne miasto nazwano Wawelnicą i stąd wzięła się obecna nazwa Wąwolnica. Językoznawcy zaś nazwę miejscowości wywodzą od staropolskiego słowa "wąwel" co oznaczać miało "cypel obronny". To właśnie na tym cyplu, czyli wzgórzu otoczonym stromymi zboczami, okolonymi rzekami Sanicą i Bystrą, wzniesiono gród obronny i kościół. 0 wiekowej metryce osady może też świadczyć dokument - rękopis z 1027 roku przechowywany na Świętym Krzyżu. W nim to napisano:

"In the year 1027 the Fathers of our monastery did parish service in the newly founded and freshly converted Wawelnica settlement."

The successful development of Wąwolnica dates back to the reign of Casimir the Great, i.e. to the 14th century. A castle and a church were built at that time, from which the Gothic castle chapel has survived to this day. The town was surrounded by defensive walls. Located at that time under Polish law, it was called Konigsberg. Its location by the trade routes from Cracow to Lithuania and from Toruń to Lublin contributed to its rapid development, and its wealth increased thanks to the trade fair privilege granted in 1409 by Władysław Jagiełło.
In 1448, during the reign of Kazimierz Jagiellończyk, the city was transferred to Magdeburg Law. In 1458 the king gave the parish to the Benedictine abbey, which was patronised by the Benedictine monks until the abolition of the order, which took place in the 19th century.
In the 15th century Wąwolnica was the seat of a non-municipal starosty. Castellan courts were also held here, and in the 16th century the courts of the governor of the nobility were held here in criminal cases. A rich documentation of court records has been preserved in the State Archive in Lublin.
In the middle of the 16th century a fire broke out, which consumed the whole Wąwolnica. After the fire in 1567, Sigismund Augustus ordered the Lublin Voivode Jan Firlej to re-establish the town. It was planned in a new place. The centre of the urban system became a market square with significant dimensions of 100x110 meters. The Starost Office in Wąwolnica became the property of Queen Bona for some time. At the end of the First Republic of Poland, the Małachowski family owned Wąwolnica. Redeemed by the Czartoryski princes from Puławy after the November Uprising, it was confiscated and sold at auction to the heirs of the tsarist authorities. In the 19th century, the townsmen asserted their rights by winning trials with the new owners.
At the beginning of the 18th century the Wąwolnica starosty was moved to Nałęczów. As a result, the castle became deserted and slowly fell into ruin. Its walls were used to rebuild a Gothic church built in the 14th century. In old guidebooks it can be read that in the area of the presbyterian garden:

"The foundations of the round tower, the remains of the former castle, have been preserved."

After the liquidation of the starosty, the town lost its importance and the population was reduced.