‘Miraculous Sites’ in the Early Modern Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth

Tomasz Wiślicz

Our reflections should be opened with a definition of the term “miraculous site” in the circumstances of the early modem Polish-Lithuanian Common­wealth. For this expression refers to two different but closely related phe- nomena. First of all, it was used to describe the sanctuaries of the Roman or Orthodox Church, famous for their miracles, usually associated with the cult of images or - less freąuently - of relics. Also so termed were the informal sites of spontaneous popular devotion to which supematural ąualities were attributed. In most cases they were determined by some special topographic points (such as little fountains or tree trunks), situated in secluded spots, occa- sionally crudely decorated.1 They performed therapeutic functions, similarly to the official sanctuaries. Even so, the attitude of the clergy towards them was, at least, unfavourable, and in the 18th century openly hostile. Usually the bish- ops or archdeacons, after a thorough interview, forbade the faithful to gather at the unofficial miraculous sites under the penalty of excommunication.2 Prze­myśl bishop Wacław Hieronim Sierakowski, who in 1754 visited his diocese in person, ordered local authorities to cover up a miraculous little fountain at

1 Similar objects were to be found throughout the whole Europę, although only in some coun- tries they became a pastorał problem. It happened usually in the areas with less developed parish network. A significance of the “miraculous sites” in the early modem Common­wealth could be compared to the Spanish “ermitas” of the same period, see P o s k a , Allyson M.: Regulating the People: The Catholic Reformation in the Seventeenth Century Spain. Leiden-Boston-Koln 1998, p. 20-25.

2 For instance, in 1725 a bishop of Płock, Andrzej Stanisław Załuski, forbade the faithful to gather at the miraculous place in the Sitno Forests (near Warsaw), see G ó r a l s k i , Woj­ciech: Andrzej Stanisław Załuski biskup płocki (1723-1736) wobec zjawiska zabobonów i czarów [Andrzej Stanisław Załuski bishop of Płock (1723-1736) and his actions in the case of superstition and witchcraft], In: Notatki Płockie 3 (1986) p. 8-10; see also a similar ban with reference to the miraculous place in Miczaki: ‘Visitatio interna et extema offi- cialatus Sandecensis... anno 1723... incepta, a c ... anno 1728... terminata’, Archives of the Metropolitan Chapter in Cracow (henceforth as AMCC), AYCap. 60, p. 94.

In: Religion und Magie in Ostmitteleuropa. Spielräume theologischerNormierungsprozesse in Spätmittelalter und Früher Neuzeit,hg. Thomas Wünsch, Berlin: Lit Verlag 2006, pp. 287-299

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Rakszawa (between Leżajsk and Łańcut) and to cut down a nearby oak figurę (presumably a cross), while a vicar of the parish church was ordered to see to it that nobody should visit this place.3 In 1708 a Cracovian official princi- pal even organised a special military expedition to liąuidate an illegal pilgrim place at Góra Witosławska.4

Thus we would deal here with a conflict between a cult of religious char- acter, realised in official sanctuaries, and a folk superstition at spontaneous miraculous sites - i.e. with the superstition to which, somehow a priori, could be ascribed a magie character. Obviously, this dichotomy should be regarded as a working thesis which shall be verified below.

In common opinion popular miraculous sites had arisen as a relic of pre- Christian beliefs, manifesting themselves in adoration of the objects of naturę, such as trees, little fountains etc. According to A LEK SA N D R A W ITK O W SK A ,

the medieval Church tried to reduce the role of such pagan cult objects through their patronization, that is by assigning to them a Christian patron saint. This was done, for instance, by creating shrines near miraculous fountains or by hanging holy images on cult trees. As a result of such methods a piłgrim’s attention was shifted from sacral power of a naturę object to a Christian icono- graphic representation.5 By the end of the Middle Age, many places of such type in Poland became famous Christian devotional centres.

Patronization fundamentally changed the significance of miraculous sites, although it did not limit a tendency of plain people to perceive a supematural power in the objects of naturę. Also in early modem times popular religious imagination willingly created miraculous sites. Possibly there was a certain revival of their popularity as a result of dissemination among common people of a functionally similar cult of miraculous images and pilgrimages.6 For the early modem era in the Commonwealth was a time of the biggest growth of

3 ‘Visitatio et status ecclesiarum in decanatu Lezajscensi... a. D. 1754’, Metropolitan Archives in Przemyśl, MS. 180, f. 37v and 46; see A t a m a n , Julian: W. H. Sierakowski i jego rządy w diecezji przemyskiej [W. H. Sierakowski and his rule in the Przemyśl dio- cese]. Warszawa 1936, p. 162.

4 K r a c i k , Jan: Praktyki religijno-magiczne na Górze Witosławskiej w czasie epidemii 1708 roku [Religious and magical practices at Góra Witosławska during the plague of 1708], In: Roczniki Teologiczno-Kanoniczne 22 (1975) no 4, p. 149-158, here p. 152.

5 W it k o w s k a , Aleksandra: Kulty pątnicze piętnastowiecznego Krakowa. Z badań nad miejską kulturą religijną [Pilgrim cults in the 15th century Cracow. A research into urban religious culture]. Lublin 1984, p. 84.

6 For comparison, in Bavaria, where in the 16th-1 8 th centuries the pilgrimages were eąually, if not more popular, there were no new, “revealed” objects of cult - there was a focus on refreshing the shrines of mediaeval origins (actual or only alleged ones), see SOERGEL, Philip M.: Wondrous in His Saints: Counter-Reformation Propaganda in Bavaria. Berkeley 1993, p. 225.

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pilgrimage centres, organised around the religious miraculous images. mainh representations of Yirgin Mary.7 At the same time, however, there were created unofficial miraculous sites, beyond the control of the clergy.

Yet an early modem stage of discovering the miraculous sites was not a return of paganism. On the contrary - an analysis of the source materiał on the subject leads to the conclusion that this phenomenon testifies to the domination of popular imagination by Christian representations. The fame of such places made people go on pilgrimage to the woodland sacred sites as well as to the official pilgrimage centres. We can guess that common pilgrims begging for God’s grace visited at a stretch both the churches famous for their miracles and superstitious “miraculous places” in forests. And little was needed to switch over an unofficial miraculous site to the official circulation - it was enough to gain favour with someone affluent enough to found there a church, or better still - a monastery.8

Considering great functional convergence of miraculous sites and, not in- freąuently, the changes in time of their character, in the further reflections be- low we will use the model types of an ideał official sanctuary and of ideał folk miraculous place, although such distinction was not perfectly elear for the people in the examined period.

In the early modem era, already on the level of the origin of a miraculous site we deal with a significant degree of ambiguity. What is striking is that preserved etiological traditions of the popular miraculous sites are of Christian character, at least in intent. According to these legends, such places were usu- ally discovered by common people wandering around forests lost in reverie or excitement. While in such a State, they perceived a personage, usualły iden-

7 So far a scalę o f this phenomenon is known only partially. Aleksandra Witkowska on the basis o f published pilgrim guidebooks found in the Commonwealth of the second half of the 17th century 135 pilgrim centres, and these only Marian, see W it k o w s k a , Aleksan­dra: Pątnicze ośrodki maryjne w XVII w. [Marian pilgrim centres in 17* century]. In: M a n ik o w s k a , Halina - Z a r e m s k a , Hanna (eds): Peregrinationes. Pielgrzymki w kul­turze dawnej Europy [Peregrinationes. Pilgrimages in culture of old Europę]. Warszawa 1995, p. 204—209. This figurę represents only the centres of supralocal significance. Al­though a detailed study of distribution of local sanctuaries encompasses only some of the Commonwealth regions, nevertheless it sheds different light on their concentration. For in- stance, according to Władysław Szczebak, in the Tarnów diocese (within boundaries from 1983) in 1772 there were ca. 100 local pilgrim shrines for 230 parishes (including Uni- ate parishes), see S z c z e b a k , Władysław: Zapomniane sanktuaria w diecezji tarnowskiej [Forgotten sanctuaries in the Tarnów diocese]. In: Tarnowskie Studia Teologiczne 9 (1983) p. 380-475, here p. 466.

8 I examine this matter in some detail in other essay, see W i Śl i c z , Tomasz: ‘Miejsca cud­owne’ w Małopolsce w XVI-XVIII wieku [‘Miraculous sites’ in the Little Poland in the 16th-18th centuries], In: Kwartalnik Historii Kultury Materialnej 47 (1999) p. 335-348.

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tified with the Virgin Mary, who spoke out that she had chosen this place to help people.9 It seems as if the scheme of mediaeval patronization had been reversed - it was not necessary to give the place a heavenly patron to divert the attention of the faithful away from an object of naturę. On the contrary, the intervention of a heavenly person is needed to tum the faithfuTs attention to the supematural qualities of a place. The place thus indicated was - at least potentially - of Christian character. Although in principle the Church author- ities treated such “appearances” with suspicion, they could not a priori reject the possibility that an actual revelation had happened.

Also, as regards the pattems of devotional behaviour at popular miracu­lous sites we can notice a significant Christianisation of ritual imagination of the faithful. Pilgrims visiting the miraculous sites said their prayers - as they would in a church - and presumably with the same words which they would use during the Mass, sińce for the majority of those people the basie Christian prayers were the only ones they knew. At the folk miraculous site in Miczaki there was even a custom to go to the parish church at Męcina village to thank God after having visited the miraculous fountain.10 The very desire to erect a chapel at the miraculous site and adom it with religious symbols indicates the (intentional) Christian character of religious ceremonies to be held there. Vo- tive offerings were brought there, as for official cult sites: food, money, maiden garlands, crutches, pilgrim staffs, as well as wax, often in shape of a dieseased organ, or sometimes even silver offering plates.11 There were also behaviors not approved by the Church, like indecent bathing and washing in the miracu­lous fountains. Occasionally there were reports of dancing, jumping, feasting and drinking sprees.12 Yet the sources say little of it. It could have been a marginal phenomenon or assiduously concealed from strangers. In any case, even in the official sanctuaries there occurred immoral incidents, especially during exorcism of the possessed.

Let us attempt then to establish the basie differences between the official and unofficial popular miraculous sites. The character of such a place could be seen at a single glance. An unofficial sanctuary was almost totally devoid of

9 See, for example, the story of Krasnobród sanctuary discoverer, Jakub Ruszczyk (in: M a ­j e w s k i , Jacek: Pustynia w Raj Zamieniona [The desert altered into the paradise]. Lublin 1753, p. 27-30) and of the discoverer of folk miraculous site at Miczaki - Jan Mikosz ( ‘Vis- itatio decanatuum Sandecensis et Novifori extem a... a.D. 1608’, AMCC, AVCap. 25, part III, p. 110); see also CHOMIK, Piotr: Kult ikon Matki Bożej w Wielkim Księstwie Litewskim w XVI-XVIII wieku [Cult o f the icons of Heavenly Mother in the Grand Duchy of Lithua- nia in 16th-18th centuries]. Białystok 2003, p. 144 and 154 ff.

10 AMCC, AVCap. 25, part III, p. 111.11 M a j e w s k i , Pustynia, p. 41-43.12 For instance see G ó r a l s k i , Andrzej Stanisław Załuski, p. 8-9.

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iconic indications, while the official cult sites had a well developed symbolic iconosphere. We receive some idea of what such folk miraculous sites looked like from the cycle presenting the history of the cult of the Virgin Mary of Leżajsk, probably by a monastic painter Szymon Hermanowicz (currently the picture is in the Bemardine Province Museum at the Bemardine monastery at Leżajsk; see fig. 1). The picture depicts the place of the appearance of Virgin Mary to a brewer, Tomasz Michałek, at the time when the parish priest of Leża- jsk had fought against this cult as a fraud.13 In the foreground is a figurę put by Tomasz Michałek on the place of the appearance (ca. 1590-1592), which - despite a ban of the local clergy - was visited by pilgrims, allegedly from as far as Vołhynia. On the left is kneeling Kasper Gołuchowski (a founder of the first, wooden church), his wife Anna and his son; on the right the artist de- picted the miracle in a field that was unexpectedly overgrown with camomile in shape of the foundations of a futurę tempie. In the background on the left we can see a procession led from the parish church to the place of the apparition; on the right Tomasz Michałek himself is telling of his vision to Jan Teolog, the first parish priest of Leżajsk to believe him. In this picture we can clearly see why the figurę put by Michałek is calłed “a pole” in the legend: it was a post with a crucifix nailed to it, with a simple shingle shelter to protect from rain. For comparison, it is worth looking at the Bemardine monastery, which some thirty odd years later (in 1618-1628) was built at the place of Michalek’s vision, after its approbation by the Church. The monastery was founded by court marshall Łukasz Opaliński (fig. 2). Up to this day it is one of the most important official pilgrimage sites in Poland.

An unofficial sanctuary, then, was distinguished at a single glance by the lack of any architectonic forms, while the official sanctuaries were housed at least in chapels, more often in churches, and best of all in magnificent monas- teries. This disparity could be put in a different way: popular miraculous sites were of “natural” character - all that was needed was but a clearing in the woods, little fountain, trunk or boulder, whereas an official wondrous place was an artificial creation. Even an object focusing the cult was of different naturę - in the case of Leżajsk it was initially the pole marking a place of the apparition of Virgin Mary. After having been approved by the Church a picture of Mary with Infant Jesus was put, allegedly painted according to the directions of Tomasz Michałek, but on the model of the holy picture from the

13 Ś n i e ŻY Ń SK A -St o l o t , Ewa - S t o l o t , Franciszek [eds]: Katalog zabytków sztuki w Polsce. Seria nowa, t. III: Województwo Rzeszowskie; z. 4: Leżajsk, Sokołów Małopol­ski i okolice [Catalogue of the monuments of art in Poland. New series, vol. III: voivodship of Rzeszów; no 4: Leżajsk, Sokołów Małpolski and its environs]. Warszawa 1989, p. 61 and fig. 205.

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ftnM.Utc nuwlŁtijpwit

i. <un, MTTW'!1r Yhom # fuo w i truło

fig■ i

‘M ir a c u l o u s S i t e s ’ 29 3

fig- 2

Basilica of S. Maria Maggiore in Rome (fig. 3) .14 It should be added, however.

14 Ibidem, p. 53; B o g d a l s k i , Czesław, Pamiętnik kościoła i klasztoru OO. Bernardynów w Leżajsku [Memoranda of the Bemardine church and monastery at Leżajsk]. Kraków 1929, p. 3 0 -3 2 .

2 9 4 T o m a s z W iś l ic z

fig- 3

that in the analysed period a symbolic marking of any popular miraculous site, although extremely simplified, it was nevertheless of Christian character. As a first sign a cross was almost always erected, then there was a crucifix added (it hung on the Leżajsk pole) or an image of the Virgin Mary (for instance in the form of a cheap paper picture).

A fundamental difference between official and superstitious miraculous sites in the modem era was of administrative naturę. It was the approval (or its lack) by the Church authorities. The post-Tridentine Church was saturated with an idea of supervising the orthodoxy of the cult and of purifying it of any ąuestionable elements.15 The approval could be granted on diverse levels. For example, by a local parish priest who, at times, without waiting for a decision of the hierarchy, would lead processions or preach sermons there.16 As a mle, however, in the Roman Church a main determinant was the approval process conducted by bishop’s commission. The purpose of such process was compe- tent verification of any rumours about the supematural ąualities of a sanctuary on the basis of the evidence given by the witnesses and written registers of

15 On the subject of the attitude of the reforming Churches (both Roman Catholic and Protes­tant) to the popular religion see a still valid synthesis by F r i j h o f , Willem Th.: Official and Popular Religion in Christianity. The Late Middle Ages and Early Modern Times (13th- 18* Centuries). In: V r i j h o f , Pieter Hendrik - W a a r d e n b u r g , Jacąues (eds): Official and Popular Religion: Analysis of a Theme for Religious Studies. The Hague 1979, p. 71- 116, here p. 86 ff.

16 B o g d a l s k i , Pamiętnik, p. 22-23; AMCC, AVCap. 25, part III, p. 110.

‘M ir a c u l o u s S i t e s ’ 295

the swom miracles. It follows that before a place was officially recognised as “miraculous” there had to be a certain type of transitory period, sometimes lasting a few dozen years, of gathering a “body of evidence” for the approval process. It would be, therefore, a period of “partial acceptance” when the sanc- tuary in question coułd not be officially recognised as “miraculous” nor even as “gracious”, and yet the local clergy would propagate its cult and encourage the faithful to describe received favours to be put down in the registers of mir­acles. On the arrival of the bishop’s commission for the process of approval, everything was ready for the start of formal proceedings. I know of only one such process that ended with a negative result.17

A ąuestion remains, however, whether official recognition of a miraculous site influenced the intentions of the people seeking its help. As I have already mentioned, the raison d’etre of such places was to secure healing and good fortunę. Performing certain rituals, the most important of which was to per- sonally visit a miraculous site, was meant to produce an anticipated result - for example, recovery from illness. It was in this way that popular miraculous sites functioned, and in the same way - also the official sanctuaries, despite the attempts of the clergy to shift the emphasis. In theory it was a reąuest to God, expressed through various cult activities relating to the sanctuary, that had to constitute the principle of pilgrim piety. Yet for the majority of the faithful, especially those from the lower social strata, what was important was an effectiveness of the sanctuary as a mean to fulfill particular goals. Many of the miraculous occurrences recorded in books of miracles acted as automatic magical remedies - uttering the right formulas and making particular gestures caused immediate, necessary intervention of the sacred.

In popular perception of the world magical practices were not contrasted with religious practices. On the contrary, they often intermingled - producing a “Christianisation of superstitions”. An interesting example of how the universe of people’s supematural imaginations merged unconflictingly diverse, some­times even opposing elements, was a story of restoration to health of Grzegorz Łabuza, a blacksmith from Kusiennice (in the vicinity of Przemyśl). His case was the subject of investigation by the bishop’s commission, which in 1745 came to Tuligłowy (a parish village about 15 km west of Przemyśl) to estab- lish whether the picture of the Virgin Mary in the local church was actually miraculous. The story goes as follows: a peasant “gave poison” to Grzegorz Łabuza in reprisal for a blow with a hammer. Łabuza “bore this poison for

17 In the village of Wardęgowo in Royal Prussia in 1720, see BORZYSZKOWSKI, Józef: Sank­tuaria maryjne Pomorza w diecezji chełmińskiej. Legenda, tradycja i historia [Marian sanc­tuaries of Pomerania in the Chełmno diocese. Legend, tradition and history], In: Studia Pelplińskie 17 (1986) p. 31-56, here p. 44.

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about three months, trying to get rid of it, went to a witch [elsewhere in the text called a sorceress, by name of Dębińska], and she was possessed, and he was giving her three zlotys, and the devil spoke through her and said you go to the broad [sic! - i.e. Virgin Mary in ‘devilish’ language] who is [in the picture] at the church of Tuligłowy, and bring this money. And as soon as he did it, the three reptiles went out of him, making him free from the poison that had been given”. 18

In this story the miraculous picture of Virgin Mary, as seen from the per- spective of the blacksmith, had the character of a more effective sorceress, and what is more, charging the same fee. It could be, however, interpreted in an utterly different way. The giving of poison caused the blacksmith a problem which in his environment could be solved only through magie measures. It could have been done by a village witch (and to her he first reported), but the same result produced a pilgrimage to the sacred picture. Thus in this case meet- ing the needs for magie actions was achieved through the customs recognised by the Church. They had their advantages over traditional magie exercised in private. First, there was no need to keep them secret, on the contrary — a cer- tain ostentation was characteristic of them. Second, by the mediation of a priest and/or a church people were gaining access to the most powerful source of the sacred.

Also interesting was the attitude of the bishop’s commission towards this case. It should be added here that this commission was made up of two canons from Przemyśl, one of them with the degree of doctor of theology, a chapter clerk and a local parish priest. Both the makeup of this body with its jurisdic- tion, and the legał basis of its activity (a bishop’s decree) indicate that it should be regarded as an official voice of the institutional Church. During the approval trial the story of blacksmith Łabuza was referred to by three witnesses: the no- blewoman Aniela Glinczanka, a daughter of the leaseholder of Łabuza home village, and two townspeople, Aleksander Rzednianowski, a “postał servant”, in his youth a student of the Cracow Academy, and Magdalena Pysznicowa (the latter not in person, but in a letter sent to the commission). The story intrigued the commission enough for it to summon a serf from Kusiennice, Sebastian Sawlak, to know more about the matter - evidentły Łabuza himself could not appear before the commission, probably he was dead, as the process took place ten years after the event. Inąuires of the commission, however, did not result from the hardly Christian intentions of the blacksmith, who instead

18 From the testimonies of the approval process published 25 years later on the occasion oferection of a new church, made of brick: J a g u ŚCIŃSKI, Dionizy: Cuda i łaski NajświętszejMaryi Panny w obrazie kościoła tuligłowskiego [Miracles and graces of Virgin Mary in thepicture at the church of Tuligłowy], Kraków 1769, p. 20-22, 37 and 52.

‘M ir a c u l o u s S i t e s ’ 29 7

of confiding in God in his illness went to an old hag. Such deeds were tnter- preted by the ecclesiastical courts as a violation of the First CommandmenL which couid be expressed in a different way that by his going to the witch. Łabuza explicitły appealed to magical practices, and only she directed him to the “more religious” way of conduct. For the bishop’s commission, however, the most important element in this case was alleged declaration of the devil who spoke through the lips of the possessed woman, identifying the Tuligłowy picture as having the power for miraculous cures. Satan was referred to as pater mendatii, nevertheless in such cases his opinion was, paradoxically, highly re- spected. In the same period in Lviv, for instance, apostolic protonotary Gabriel Kasparowicz thoroughly interrogated the demons exorcised out of the bodies of the possessed about miraculousness of the Pieta at the Armenian Archcathe- dral in Lviv.19

Yet let us return again to the blacksmith Łabuza and others like him. Seek- ing divine help at miraculous sites by the faithful, especially those from the lower strata, usually resembled magical practice. The Church efforts to puli them away from the witches or unverified forest sanctuaries towards official pilgrimage sites could be regarded as an attempt to substitute traditional magie for Christian magie. It would have been consistent with the clergy policy to­wards popular religion. The Church offered the faithful an opportunity to prac- tise magie within the framework of Christian rituals, for example ministering sacramentals, giving the benediction etc. The substitution of Christian magie for traditional magie was perceived by the Church hierarchy as a significant step towards eradication of pagan relics, idolatry and superstitions.

Christianisation of miraculous sites, however, was a much more complex pastorał strategy. The therapeutic effect of sanctuary was a sequence of events which could be presented in form of the following schema:1. A problem - usually health or life risk,2. testing other, ineffective remedies (for example, medical advice or pilgrim-

ages to other sanctuaries),3. honest offering up of oneself to the miraculous site, i.e. making a commit-

ment to personally visit the sanctuary (in the case of children, unconscious or possessed people a vow could be made by the family members),

4. the solution of the problem, that is usually restoration to health (in case of chronic illness, not reąuiring immediate intervention of the sacred, it

19 K a s p a r o w ic z , Gabriel: Skarb wszechmocności Boskiej nieprzebrany w cudownej Matce Swojej Kościoła Archicatedralnego Lwowskiego Ormiańskiego [Treasure of the inex- haustible Omnipotence of God in His miraculous Mother at the Armenian Archcathedral in Lvov], Vasyl Stefanyk Scientific Library in Lviv, Ossolineum Collection, MS. 1721, p. 31, 87,91.

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usuałly had to be preceded by fulfilment of the religious obligations, i.e. after the next point of the schema),

5. fulfilment of the pledge, that is a piłgrimage to the sanctuary and perfor­mance of the appropriate ceremonies (attending mass, confession, and com- munion, occasionally - if there was a need - preceded by the exorcisms), making the votive offering and registering the miracle in the book of mira­cles.

At least from the third point of the above scheme, all actions of the per­son seeking divine help were closely related to Christian rituals and Christian concept of the Sacred. Metaphorically it could be imagined as a whirl which pulled in various painful experiences and with the strength of inner logie set them on the course compatible with the dominant theological model.

This mechanism could be illustrated with a following miracle from the Miracle Book of Tuligłowy: here a certain “Jan Wilczyński, a miller from Grobla Węgierska, testified that when his wife Anna had given birth to a dead child who, black and with a head like a puppet, for two hours was ly- ing dead. -— Regina Mazurkiewiczowa [presumably a midwife] taking herbs began to fumigate this child [so we have here an attempt at ąuackery practice]; then she took a gulp of vodka into her mouth and breathed on that child, but it wouldn’t move [this could be ąualified as medical procedurę]: meanwhile this Mazurkiewiczowa said to the mother of the child: ‘Janowa, offer your- self to the Holy Mother of Tuligłowy and declare an honest intention that this child may live, not for the sake of bringing it up, nor that it may serve you, but specifically that it may at least be baptised.’ At this time the mother sighed and entmsted it to the care of the Mother of Jesus of Tuligłowy; in a ąuarter of an hour the child began to yawn, opened one eyelid and ąuietly whimpered. Immediately baptised, it is still alive”. 20

The model that was being established in official sanctuaries was convinc- ing enough to shape religious behaviour of the faithful in popular miraculous sites, despite the lack of pastorał supervision. As a result, those superstitious miraculous places, harshly treated by the Church hierarchy, became explicitly, although not always purely Christian. What determined the attractiveness of this model? A right proportion of its components, I suppose. For it offered certain traits close to magical thinking - first and foremost, the very idea of “geographical disparity” in the distribution of God’s grace, i.e. a conviction that in certain sites the problems, insoluble elsewhere, could be solved. Sec- ond, a custom to present materiał offerings, which could be seen as a “barter exchange” with the supematural world. And finally, the pains of piłgrimage it-

20 J a g u ś c iŃs k i , C uda , p. 1 8 3 -1 8 4 .

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self that had to contribute to ensuring a specific eąuilibrium in case of winning divine grace.

At the same time, the model of sanctuary devotion promoted certain more advanced religious attitudes as, for example, an ability to address to God through an individualised prayer, expressing both personal desires and needs, and ones own attitude towards the supernatural world. Not less important was the formation of conscious intentionality of the faithful, sińce only their honest offering up of themselves to sanctuary could produce desired effect.

In conclusion, it should be stated that a clear-cut division of miraculous sites - between the official sanctuaries and informal places of spontaneous popular devotion - in the early modem Commonwealth is impossible, despite certain distinguishing features, such as their appearance or their official recog- nition by the Church authorities. The genetic and formal similarities between them, however, require treating these places collectively, especially as regards the type of religious behaviour realised there. Both in officially recognised sanctuaries and informal ones people followed similar pattems of devotional behaviour, shaped by the official pilgrim piety, nonetheless not devoid of traits of magical thinking. Thus it is rather impossible to determine the exact dis- tinction between religion and magie in case of the miraculous sites of the pre- partitioned Poland. The unconflicting combination of them seems, however, somewhat anachronistic for the early modem period.

(translated by Grażyna Waluga)