Natura Sanat: On Ecological Aspects of Healing Miracles in Kalwaria Pacławska, Poland

Abstract

studied ethnology and Latin American studies. Since 2007 she has worked in the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology of the Polish Academy of Sciences. Her main subject of interest was anthropology of religion and performance studies, and especially forms of religious expression. In 2011 she defended her Ph.D. thesis on Polish Passion plays at Warsaw University. Now she is finishing another project on historical reenactments in Poland. She is an author of over twenty articles dealing with contemporary religiosity and with perceiving and representing history. She also wrote a book on Passion plays, The Crucified: Contemporary Passion Plays in Poland (de Gruyter, 2017). Photos 1 and 2 credit: Paweł Baraniecki 28 | Nature in Religious Discourses and Imageries in Poland's Kalwaria Pacławska Sanctuary JOURNAL OF GLOBAL CATHOLICISM however, I focus on a different aspect of Kalwaria Pacławska's location, namely the natural environment surrounding the sanctuary, since it constitutes yet another important factor that shapes the religious experiences of the faithful 3 who come to Kalwaria, just as it directs the practices of the local Franciscan monks, which are designed to deepen the pilgrims' involvement in the local cult. The sanctuary in Kalwaria Pacławska is a monastic complex with forty-one eighteenth-century chapels scattered across the two hills on opposing sides of the Wiar River-the Kidron of Kalwaria Pacławska. [Photo 3] As a calvary, this place of worship is intended to resemble, reflect, and symbolize Jerusalem. Calvaries, a kind of Roman Catholic sanctuary, are quite common in Poland, although with the exception of Kalwaria Zebrzydowska near Kraków, they remain mostly only locally popular cult sites. All are built as a set of chapels that are the stations of the Way of 3 Although in the introductory part of the article I do not quote particular respondents and I generalize and synthetize pilgrims' opinions, feelings, and experiences, I do so based on the three years of research I have conducted in Kalwaria Pacławska during the project. Thus, when I write that pilgrims feel or perceive something in a particular way, I do it based on my fieldwork.