St Peter's Basilica in Rome is a special place for both pilgrims and art lovers. When visiting it, it is worth noting the memorabilia related to figures and events important to the history of Poland, showing it as an integral part of European culture and civilisation.

Polish saint on Bernini's colonnade

St Peter's Square is surrounded by a colonnade crowned by 139 monumental statues of saints symbolising the triumphant Church. It was designed by Giovanni Lorenzo Bernini (1598-1680). In the southern arm of the colonnade, third from the left, is a statue of a Polish saint, the Dominican saint Jacek Odrowaz (1183-1257). He is in the group of saints of the reformers and founders of congregations, which fitted perfectly with the ideology of the Counter-Reformation. The statue was made between 1667 and 1678 by the sculptor Lazzaro Morelli (1619-1690). The saint, dressed in a Dominican habit, holds a custody (a liturgical vessel for the host) in his right hand. This is a reference to the story of how Odrowąż, fleeing from the Tartar invasion of the Kyiv monastery he founded, took the Blessed Sacrament to protect it from profanation. The sculptor depicted the Dominican with a laurel branch and a mitre lying at his feet - both attributes are an iconographic mistake. For St. Jacek did not die a martyr's death, he was not a bishop, and mitres were not used by the superiors of mendican orders (mendicant orders: Dominicans and Franciscans). This is due to the fact of the original, unrealized concept, which planned to place on the colonnade a statue not of St Jack, but of another Polish saint - Prince Casimir (1458-1484), one of the patron saints of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.

Souvenirs of the Vienna Victory

Among the numerous gifts offered to the popes in the Vatican collection were valuable mementos related to the wars against Turkey and, in particular, the Vienna Victory. John III Sobieski (1629-1696), although he himself never visited Rome, occupies an important place in works of art associated with the ecclesiastical capital. Seen as the main author of the victorious relief of Vienna, he appeared as a defender of Christianity and European civilisation.

The deeds of John III are described in numerous prints and manuscripts bearing images of the monarch, collected in the Vatican Library. The most famous memento associated with the Polish king was the flag of Grand Vizier Kara Mustafa, captured at the Battle of Vienna and sent as a gift to Pope Innocent XI. The crimson pennant, bordered with a green bordering, was covered with gold-embroidered inscriptions containing the Islamic canon. The royal envoys, together with the ensign, handed the Holy Father a letter from the king, beginning with the memorable words: Venimus, vidimus, Deus vincit. The pennant, placed above the main entrance to St Peter's Basilica, became in the eyes of Europe a symbol of the triumph of Christianity over the Turkish power, and the Pope, in recognition of his merits, bestowed on the King the title Defensor fidei (Defender of the Faith) in 1684. Unfortunately, the later fate of this most famous Vatican polonicum is unknown, and there are several research hypotheses about it. Currently, the object is considered lost. The appearance of this valuable monument can be reconstructed on the basis of surviving engravings and descriptions.

Tombstone of the royal granddaughter

The fame of John III and the subsequent stay in Rome (1699-1714) of the queen dowager Maria Kazimiera (1641-1716) meant that the Sobieski family enjoyed special favour at the papal court. The daughter of John III's eldest son, Prince James (1667-1737), Maria Clementina (1701-1735), married in 1719. James Stuart (1688-1766), a Catholic pretender to the throne of England.

The couple, enjoying the favour of the Pope, settled in Rome and Mary Clementine became a renowned patron of the arts. After her untimely death in 1735, she was buried in the vaults of St Peter's Basilica, and the following year Pope Clement XII willed her tombstone to be erected. Located in the left nave, above the door leading to the dome, the monumental monument is the work of several artists. It was made between 1739 and 1742 and was funded by Popes Clement XII and Benedict XIV. On the draped sarcophagus, inscribed Maria Clementina M[agnae] Brita[niae] / Franc[iae] et Hibern[iae] Regina (Mary Clementina, Queen of Great Britain, France and Ireland), a seated personification of Love, understood as both love of God and maternal love, is depicted next to a putto supporting a medallion with a mosaic portrait of the Queen. At the foot of the sarcophagus, two putti are shown holding the attributes of royal power - a scepter and a crown.

The placement of the sarcophagus above the door has an important symbolic significance. It alludes to a transition, the closing of a stage of earthly life and the beginning of an eternal one in heaven. The tombstone was designed by Filippo Barigioni (1690-1753), the sculptures by Pietro Bracci (1700-1773) and the mosaic portrait of the deceased by Fabbio Cristofani (1680-1748). The tomb of John III's granddaughter is undoubtedly the most beautiful female tomb in the Vatican basilica.

The chalice from Lviv

The chalice offered to Pius IX by pilgrims from Lviv in 1877 on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of his episcopal ordination, founded on the initiative of the Lviv city council with contributions from the public, is a remarkable polonium. The extensive iconographic programme of the chalice refers to important events in the history of the Republic and its role in the history of Christianity in Europe.

The chalice is decorated with an image of the Virgin Mary of Częstochowa and a symbolic representation of the Union of Brest. The foot depicts Polish saints: St Stanislaus, St Adalbert, St Josaphat Kuncewicz and Blessed Andrzej Bobola, as well as St Kinga, St Jadwiga of Silesia, Blessed Salomea and Blessed Bronislava. There are also medallions with battle scenes depicting the battles of Legnica, Warna, Orsza and Vienna. The patriotic ideological programme is complemented by the coats of arms of Poland, Lithuania, Ruthenia and the city of Lviv.

The chalice was made in the Florentine Marchesini goldsmith's workshop. The author of the design for this extraordinary gold work, the sculptor and poet Teofil Lenartowicz (1822-1893), completed it with the following stanzas:

"This chalice holds your history

My Homeland, and in itself the Blood of God;

For the Blood that has fallen and that still pours down

The gates of heaven the Angels will open.

Since the Sacrifice has been silent,

No such chalice has been raised."

The Polish Chapel

The most monumental object associated with Poland is - located in the so-called Vatican grottoes, the basement of St Peter's Basilica - the Polish Chapel. It was created in 1953, when Pope Pius XII, in response to requests for the erection of an altar associated with Poland, agreed to furnish a Polish chapel, suggesting that it be dedicated to Our Lady of Czestochowa.

The funds for the furnishing of the interior were donated by Monsignor Alfons Aleksander Skoniecki (1894-1975), pastor of the Polish parish in Three Rivers, Massachusetts (USA). The chapel was designed by the architect Francesco Vacchini, and its sculptural decoration was entrusted to the Polish sculptor Michał Paszna (1903-1970). The altar features a mosaic depicting Our Lady of Czestochowa, which is surrounded by reliefs of the patron saints of Poland - St Stanislaus and St Adalbert. The decoration is complemented by reliefs of Polish saints: Brother Albert Chmielowski, Jan Kante, Stanisław Kostka, Jacek Odrowąż, Maksymilian Kolbe, Kazimierz, Jadwiga Śląska and Andrzej Bobola.

The chapel was enlarged during the pontificate of St John Paul II.

Places associated with the Polish Pope

When writing about Polish traces in the Vatican, it is impossible not to mention the sites connected with the person of the Polish Pope, St John Paul II (1920-2005).

In one of the windows facing St Peter's Square, in the building located between the courtyard of St Damasus and the square, there is a mosaic with a representation of the Virgin Mary as Mater Ecclessiae (Mother of the Church), with the coat of arms of John Paul II and the motto Totus Tuus. The mosaic was made in 1981 after the assassination attempt on the Pope, who linked his salvation to the intercession of the Virgin Mary. It was modelled on a painting in St Peter's Basilica depicting Mary and the Child, known as the Madonna della Colonna.

The site of the assassination itself is commemorated by a small marble slab set into the pavement of the square. The slab bears the date: XIII V MCMLXXXI and above it the papal coat of arms. It was unveiled in 2006 on the eve of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the assassination attempt.

The most important place for the many pilgrims arriving in Rome is the tomb of St John Paul II in the Chapel of St Sebastian. The Polish Pope is commemorated by a simple marble slab with the inscription SANCTVS IOANNES PAVLVS PP. II, incorporated into the mensa of the altar. Symbolically, Innocent XI, a Pope sympathetic to Poland, to whom John III Sobieski presented the Grand Vizier's banner captured at the Battle of Vienna, was previously buried in this chapel.