Out of sweat, tears and sacrifices, but also out of attachment to traditions and symbols, a bond was formed between Poles and Danes. The plane of understanding became the church in Maribo on the island of Lolland.

The last quarter of the 19th century. A wave of economic migrants, mainly Polish women, flowed into Denmark from poor Galicia. The landowners who employed them built housing barracks right next to the fields out of their savings. They also devised a system of payment based on food rations and modest wages in cash.

The newcomers were thus suffocated by poverty not much less severe than that which drove them away for work. The local population shunned them, and unfavourable, derisive articles appeared in the press. "Potato-eaters", "beetroot Poles" were examples of epithets used to describe Poles. No wonder, then, that they stuck together. In order to tame the foreignness at least a little, they created their own little homelands. Above their beds, they hung tissue-paper flowers, wooden crosses, pictures of saints and most often, in a central place, images of Our Lady of Częstochowa. They also looked forward eagerly to Saturday evenings and Sunday mornings, which were a break from the difficult and monotonous everyday life. At that time, as we read in accounts, Danish towns resounded with Polish.

The spiritual needs of the newcomers posed quite a challenge. Denmark is an Evangelical-Lutheran country and to this day there are not many Catholic churches there. Poles, on the other hand, would return to Galicia after completing their seasonal work. However, they soon found that they were indispensable and after a few months they came again. Year after year, there were more and more Poles, and by the early 20th century, there were around 20,000 Poles on the Danish islands. 20,000 Poles on the Danish islands.

Polish church on Lolland-Falster in Maribo

"Beet emigration" was particularly evident on the adjacent islands of Lolland and Falster. It was there that the need for a Catholic temple was first recognised. It was erected in Maribo, a village in the centre of the island of Lolland. The church of St Brigid and St Stanislaus was consecrated here in 1897. It is located at today's Maria Gade 9, a street from which it was then less than half a kilometre to the town hall square.

Architecture of St Bridget's Church

St Bridget's Catholic Church was designed by Henrik Christopher Glahn, a well-known architect in Denmark. The exterior of the building is in keeping with the style of Danish village churches, which were built in accordance with the so-called Danish national architecture concept.

The temple in Maribo is a neo-Gothic building, with a tower to the west and a choir to the east. The tower, nave and chancel are tiled, their gables decorated with a crenellation, in the form of rectangular blanks. The brick walls are topped by a tripartite cornice with a stepped frieze.

St Brigid's Church in Maribo - present, from the collection of the Polish Chamber Museum

The windows were placed in pointed niches. Similarly, the main entrance, located in the turret, is formed by a portal referring to the stylistic solutions of Gothic architecture, but here with residual archivolts and a tympanum on which, instead of a bas-relief, the patron saint of the church, St Brigid, has been painted.

From the outside, the church looks like a building like many in Denmark at the time. It differed in that it was in the hands of the Catholics, rather than the dominant followers of the national church in Denmark.

Coffered ceiling in St Brigid's Church

However, the builder did not overlook elements that were intended to embolden newcomers and make them feel more at home in their foreign lands. The ascetic interior, which is closer to Protestant than to Roman Catholic churches, is notable for its coffered ceiling. This architectural element, which is unusual for the Danes and has no pragmatic justification in the construction itself, was intended to remind worshippers of the churches they attended in their home country. Written evidence of this is difficult to find, but the history of the building supports this thesis.

It began with the arrival of a Catholic priest, Edward Ortved, seconded to Maribo from Copenhagen. He began his ministry among the Poles in 1893 and it was then that the decision to build a new temple had to be made. It was also decided that funds would be raised during fund-raising events held in the Polish lands and in the late autumn of 1893, when the parishioners were returning home, the priest set off after them. This journey proved to be the first of many. It is known that the Danish clergyman learnt the Polish language and, although he encountered adversity more than once (he had to hide in disguise in the Russian partition), this did not discourage him. He even managed to secure permission to come from Tsar Nicholas II himself.

He received the relics of the saints from the Bishop of Kraków, Jan Puzyna: Stanislaus, Adalbert and Jadwiga, and acquired a monstrance in Poznań. The funds raised in Poland allowed him to purchase a plot of land in Maribo in 1895, and the following year to begin construction.

A stained glass window and a fragment of the coffered ceiling in St Brigid's Church in Maribo - present, from the collection of the Polish Chamber Museum

It is believed that the inspiration for the use of the coffered ceiling in the Maribo church came during Fr Edward Ortved's trip to Galicia. Although we do not know his exact routes, it is not difficult to imagine that during his journey he visited, for example, churches in Nowy Sącz or nearby Krużlowa Wyżna. This is where his parishioners may have come from and where he noticed this distinctive decorative element. Edward Ortved, understanding the importance of symbolism, probably suggested to the architect to use the coffers in Maribo.

Monument to the Roepiger - the "beet Poles" - in Sakskøbing

The history of the Poles, or rather the Polish women, as they made up the bulk of the seasonal workers, turned out to be even more perverse than the history of the architectural motif in the newly erected temple. Initially ridiculed and despised by some, Polish women became an example of female entrepreneurship in Denmark thanks to their resourcefulness and hard work.

In 1940, a monument to the Roepiger, or "beetroot women", was erected in Sakskøbing, 10 km from Maribo. It was erected as a token of gratitude for their contribution to the culture, not just the agrarian culture, of the whole country. 75 years have passed, the Polish diaspora has doubled in size and in 2015, a plaque was unveiled on the Roepiger pedestal by the Lolland authorities together with the Polish ambassador to Denmark, Henryka Moscicki-Dendys. It reads that 'the Roepiger [...] are a symbol of the historical links between Danish and Polish society'.

The Catholic church in Maribo can best serve as a point of reference for the Polish economic emigration in Denmark at that time. As a reminder, its first patron saint is St Brigid, who has been venerated on the island of Lolland since the 15th century. In the Middle Ages, this Swedish saint peregrinated around Europe at the time and died in Rome, where she advocated for the establishment of a new order and the return of the Pope from Avignon.

This unifying and dynamic, multicultural, multifaceted activity was recognised by Pope John Paul II, who declared St Brigid to be the patron saint of Europe in 1999. And let us add to this a number of our nameless countrywomen who indirectly contributed to the development of the cult of this saint, also in Scandinavia.