Blessed Stefan Wyszyński – Primate of the Millennium

What connects the Museum of the Warsaw Archdiocese with the Primate of the Millennium?

Thanks to the persistent efforts of Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński, the museum was reactivated despite the reluctance of the authorities of the People's Republic of Poland.

For over 30 years the communist authorities of Poland refused to allow a church museum to operate in Warsaw, although diocesan museums functioned in other cities of People's Poland. At the beginning of the 1970s, the Primate of Poland entrusted Fr. Dr. Jan Wysocki, director of the Archive of the Warsaw Archdiocese, with leading the work on creating the future museum. Collections began to be gathered, and the chapter house of the Archcathedral served as their temporary home.

Officially, the institution was reactivated in 1978, and in spring 1979, a dozen or so days before the first pilgrimage of the Holy Father John Paul II to Poland, the Archdiocese recovered for museum purposes the building of the former Trinitarian monastery on Solec in Warsaw. After necessary renovation of the building at ul. Solec 61, on 21 April 1980 the Museum was officially opened to the public. The solemn blessing was given by Bishop Jerzy Modzelewski, standing in for the ailing Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński. The director was Fr. Andrzej Przekaziński, who held this post for 35 years.

The Cardinal Wyszyński Institute, founded by him, had its seat in the present building of the Museum at ul. Dziekania 1 in the Old Town of Warsaw.

The Institute is a continuation of the Primate's Institute of the Vows of the Nation at Jasna Góra, established by the Primate of Poland, Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński, on 3 May 1957.

Until 2010, part of the present museum rooms was used for the Institute's statutory activities concerning the preservation, safeguarding and dissemination of the heritage of the Primate of the Millennium.

In creating an exhibition devoted to the Primate of the Millennium, we express our gratitude for his effort and determination in reactivating the MAW, and we wish to commemorate the life and work of Cardinal Wyszyński, thereby contributing to the preservation and transmission to future generations of the heritage of the teaching and thought of the Servant of God.

The display is part of the permanent exhibition of the Museum of the Warsaw Archdiocese.

The exhibition devoted to Cardinal Wyszyński in the museum's basement presents objects owned by the museum and objects received on deposit that are directly connected with the person of the Cardinal.

The display cases contain, among other things, the liturgical vestments of the Servant of God (chasuble, mitre, stole, cope) bearing the coat-of-arms motto SOLI DEO – To God Alone. Commemorative orders, medals and plaques are also shown. Some are accompanied by a note written by the Cardinal, stating the occasion and date on which the item was received. Liturgical vessels offered to the Cardinal on various occasions, including a chalice and paten – a Gift of Ars Christiana on the occasion of his 75th birthday.

A 15-minute film has also been prepared, consisting of photographs of important events involving the Cardinal, as well as meetings with friends during holiday rest.

In one of the display cases, among photographs from various periods of the Cardinal's life, we show 2 documents important to the museum: a letter from the Primate of the Millennium on the occasion of the opening of the Museum in April 1981 and a letter dated 3 May 1956. The handwritten letter was sent from Komańcza, the Primate's last place of imprisonment. The Cardinal's letter required “decoding”, which we obtained thanks to cooperation with the Primate's Institute, which works daily with the Primate's texts.

The letter was written a week after the act of 27 April 1956 on the conditions for permissible termination of pregnancy was passed. In light of that event, the following words of the Cardinal, highlighted below, seem significant:

Dear Child,

*I receive your comforting words with gratitude and repay them with a blessing and pastoral devotion. I rejoice that my last words, on the day of Blessed Władysław, were properly understood. It is so hard for people to listen to harsh words. Fortunately, at that time I was speaking rather to myself, aware that I am standing on the threshold. But people tend rather…