Top photo caption: The image of Our Lady of Gietrzwald is seen inside the Marian sanctuary at Poland’s only Vatican-recognized apparition site. Mary is reported to have appeared to two young visionaries some 160 times over the course of two months in 1877 in Gietrzwald, which is in northeastern Poland. OSV News photo/Paulina Guzik
By Katarzyna Szalajko, OSV News
WARSAW, Poland OSV News – A Marian sanctuary in the heart of northern Europe’s countryside – often called the “Polish Lourdes” – could soon draw global attention, as Pope Leo XIV has been invited to visit the site where the Virgin Mary appeared approximately 160 times.
As the Marian month of May unfolds, the village of Gietrzwald (pronounced Gyetsh-vowt), in the picturesque northeastern Warmian-Masurian lake region – is preparing for major celebrations in 2027 marking the 150th anniversary of the apparitions.
Polish bishops, along with President Karol Nawrocki, who visited the Vatican in September 2025, have extended an invitation to the Pope, raising the possibility that the quiet sanctuary could become the focus of international pilgrimage and renewed Marian devotion.
The events that took place in Gietrzwald in 1877 remain unique in the life of the Church. Over the course of roughly two months, two young girls reported around 160 apparitions of the Virgin Mary – sometimes occurring twice a day – making it one of the most prolonged and concentrated series of Marian apparitions ever recorded.
It is also the only apparition site in Poland officially recognized by the Vatican.
Unlike better known sites such as Lourdes or Fatima, the apparitions in Gietrzwald were marked not only by their frequency but by extended dialogue. According to historical accounts, the visionaries engaged in multiweek conversations with Mary, addressing both theological questions – including the Immaculate Conception – and the practical concerns of daily life.
“That’s a unique aspect,” filmmaker Jan Sobierajski said. “We don’t find that in the history of Lourdes, Fatima or La Salette.”
At the same time, the message itself echoed the familiar core of Marian apparitions: a call to prayer, particularly the rosary, and to conversion. Sister Anna Wojciechowska, provincial superior of the Daughters of Charity in Poland, emphasized that continuity. The “invitation from our Mother” was clear: “Pray the rosary every day,” she said. “And the assurance given by Mary: ‘Do not be afraid, for I will always be with you.'”
Despite the scale and intensity of these events, Gietrzwald has remained relatively little known outside Poland. That may now be changing as the anniversary approaches, and the sanctuary is drawing new attention.
“Mary chooses places forgotten by the world: provinces, villages and small towns,” Sobierajski said. “This is a spiritual principle we can see in Scripture.”
Sobierajski is a director of “Mary, Mother of the Pope” documentary, in which he tells the story of St. John Paul II’s devotion to Our Lady. Cardinal Karol Wojtyla was present for the decoration of the image of Our Lady of Gietrzwald with papal crowns of St. Paul VI in 1967 and again visited the site when apparitions were officially recognized by the Vatican in 1977 – 100 years after Our Lady appeared to the two girls.
The story of Gietrzwald is inseparable from the two young visionaries at its center: Barbara Samulowska and Justyna Szafrynska. Both were children – Samulowska was just 12 years old – when they reported seeing the Virgin Mary. As Sobierajski noted, “There is something about children that allows them to enter into the deepest mysteries of faith.”
The life of one of its visionaries has also come back into focus following a recent Vatican development. In March, the Church recognized the heroic virtues of Sister Barbara, granting her the title of venerable and advancing her sainthood cause.
Sister Barbara’s life blends mysticism, simplicity and a quietness – a story of a child who said she spoke with the Virgin Mary, and then spent the rest of her life serving the poor.
Upon reaching adulthood, she entered religious life and largely disappeared from public view.
“As a visionary from Gietrzwald, Sister Barbara was an ordinary child,” Sister Anna, superior of the Daughters of Charity in Poland, told OSV News. “Her parents were very religious and attached to the parish. She was lively, simple. She had a good reputation among neighbors, she was talented in school. She was considered a girl who loved truth and was sincere.”
Sister Anna added, “Already as a girl, she was called by Mary ‘my little daughter.'”
Samulowska joined the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul, commonly known as the Grey Sisters, in 1883, taking the convent name Sister Stanislawa. She spent decades in service to the poor, including missionary work in Guatemala, where she lived out her final years.
In Guatemala, she served several roles, including novice mistress, hospital worker and orphanage director. She died on Dec. 6, 1950, from a malignant oral tumor.
“As a Daughter of Charity, she faithfully lived the charism of our founders … loving the poor, the sisters and those she worked with,” Sister Anna said. “She lived daily fidelity to Jesus – in the model of Mary, the handmaid of the Lord.”
The contrast between the extraordinary beginnings of her life and its quiet unfolding is striking, though not unfamiliar in the history of Marian apparitions.
“I think that after meeting Mary, no one’s life looks the same,” Sister Anna said.
For Sobierajski, this transformation is precisely what gives such stories their enduring relevance. “The most compelling stories are those where we see a radical transformation of the protagonist,” he told OSV News. “And that is the case with visionaries, who after meeting Mary change their lives dramatically.”
He noted that there is no evidence Sister Barbara had planned a religious vocation before the apparitions. “Only this mystical experience … ignited her heart,” Sobierajski said.
The sanctuary itself, however, remains the focal point of devotion, especially as Poland prepares for the anniversary celebrations. For many, Gietrzwald is not only a site of historical significance but a living spiritual center that continues to shape national identity.
“Marian devotion is absorbed by Poles with their mother’s milk,” Sobierajski told OSV News. “There is no other nation like this in Europe – and together with Mexico, we are a phenomenon on a global scale.”
He also pointed to the sheer scale of the apparitions as something still unmatched. “I have not found another place like Gietrzwald, where the Virgin Mary would appear so many times,” he said. “It is an exceptional sign for Poles, who have chosen Mary as their queen. It is a great distinction – but also a commitment.”
For Sobierajski, that commitment carries personal implications. “Each of us has a vocation,” he said. “And who could be a better teacher of how to fulfill it than the Mother of God? She responded to God’s invitation – and we can do the same.”
Katarzyna Szalajko writes for OSV News from Warsaw, Poland.
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