Father Wyszynski Pilgrimage

I NTRODUCTION Sometimes he was dubbed a “pilgrim.” When only ten years old, without the knowledge of his parents, he set out for Rome. He managed to cover several dozen kilometers before his brother caught up with him and turned him back. In his youth he probably travelled to church fairs in the area of his native town in Mazovia. When he was twenty-one he pledged to make a pil- grimage to Santiago de Compostela in Spain, one of the most famous sites near the Cape Finisterre, the last point of pilgrimage along St. Jacob’s trail—in antiqui- ty believed to be the end of the earth. He did not com- plete this pilgrimage because of an illness; he was obliged by the ecclesiastical authorities to visit Roman shrines instead. While in Rome, he received God’s gift of a vocation to the Marian Order. For three winter months he traveled back to Poland to bid farewell to his dying mother and to place himself under the care of Mary Immaculate in the Marian Order. For 30 years he served God and people under the banner of Mary. He entrusted to her all difficult matters of the Order, which he served at times as its General Superior, and made pilgrimages to various shrines in Poland, most fre- quently visiting Jasna Góra in Częstochowa. Being in Rome on his Order’s business, he often went to Loreto in search of God’s enlightenment and help. He took along on his trip to Portugal a candle