St Stan Illustrated Story

88 W hile Fr. Papczynski was laying the foundations of his Con- gregation in the forest of korabiew, his guardian and imme- diate ecclesiastical Superior, Bishop Stefan Wierzbowski, was carrying out, in another section of his diocese, a bold and pious plan for com- memorating the various scenes of Our Lord’s Passion. With this purpose in mind, he had purchased a hamlet called Gora near Czersk, not far from Warsaw. In 1670, he received the king’s per- mission, and the rights which went with it, to build a new town there, to be called the “New Jerusalem” (it is today known as “Gora kalwaria” or “Calvary Hill”). In accordance with his plan, the bishop began to build chapels, churches, and Stations of the Cross similar to those in the real Jerusalem, for he wanted the “New” Jerusalem to be a copy, a duplicate, of the “Old.” One memorable ceremony that took place at this time was the trans- fer of the body of St. Valerian from Rome to New Jerusalem. The relics of the martyred Saint, the spouse of St. Cecilia, were carried in solemn procession to a church that had recently been built to represent Solomon’s Temple. From that time onwards, St. Valerian became the patron of the Land of Czersk, “against pestilence.”