Lumen 2018

391 The End of Father Stanislaus’s Life expectant mothers. It is before the icon that the mysteries of the “Living Rosary” are exchanged. On Sundays and various feast days, the icon is solemnly uncovered, and, on the third Sunday of the month, a Novena to Our Lady of Gozlin is offered with special prayers and a Chaplet of the Ten Virtues of the Blessed Virgin Mary that the Marians once used to recite. The people also believe that it was because of Our Lady of Gozlin that the church was not damaged during World War I and survived World War II, although the front line in the years 1944-1945 ran along the Vistula River. It did not burn during a fire in the area in 1966, although it was in serious dan- ger. The fire was already touching the shingles, but, due to the in- tercession of the Blessed Mother, the historic church survived. 95 The present church in Gozlin is a replacement for the first one which burned down in 1769. A wayside cross commemorates the place where the original stood. The construction of the new church was completed in 1776, which is confirmed by an inscription carved on the railing around the choir loft: Aedific. 1776. This basilica-like church, built in the shape of the cross, in the Baroque style, on a brick foundation, with three aisles, boarded walls, with a two-tower facade, is a unique relic of wooden architecture, imitating the classic forms of religious stone architecture of the 18 th century. The walls of the main aisle are supported by two pairs of Tuscan pillars. The windows are rectangular except for those in the side aisles which are finished in a semicircle. The main door and the side door are secured with old metal fittings and locks. The illusionistic, late Baroque poly- chromy inside the church was designed and painted in part by Fr. John Niezabitowski, a Marian, and restored in 1933 by Ladislaus Zych. Painted in tempera on canvas and on primed wooden beams, it covers the entire interior of the church and is beautifully harmo- nized with it. Above the main altar, there is a painting depicting the Immaculate Mother of God, painted by Fr. Niezabitowski in the last decade of the 18 th century and restored in 1984. On the side walls of the presbytery are the figures of the Twelve Apostles, standing in pairs on consoles, between Corinthian-style columns, with verses from the Nicene Creed underneath. Above the figures of the Apos-