Marian devotion
Our Lady of Kębło, of Wąwolnica
Marian title of Wąwolnica (Lublin)
According to the local traditionthe origin of the cult is related to the Tatar incursions of the 13th century. The memory of the place of Kębło, about 2 km from Wąwolnica, is linked to the year 1278when, according to the book, the Virgin would have manifested herself there, stopping or protecting herself against a Tatar attack against the area. A traces on the rock venerated in Kębło are popularly interpreted as "footprints of Mary." This tradition also places in Kębło the presence of an ancient Marian image then moved to the temple of Wąwolnica.
Main data
Origin and history
According to the local traditionthe origin of the cult is related to the Tatar incursions of the 13th century. The memory of the place of Kębło, about 2 km from Wąwolnica, is linked to the year 1278when, according to the book, the Virgin would have manifested herself there, stopping or protecting herself against a Tatar attack against the area. A traces on the rock venerated in Kębło are popularly interpreted as "footprints of Mary." This tradition also places in Kębło the presence of an ancient Marian image then moved to the temple of Wąwolnica.
From the perspective of the documented history, it is attested that the Marian cult in Kębło and Wąwolnica dates back to the Middle Ages and spread over time. The Gothic figure of the Virgin with the Child, today venerated as Mother of Boża Kębelska, is a size of the 13th / 14th century, originally placed in a chapel on the rock of Kębło and then moved to the shrine of Wąwolnica. The place was consolidated as one of the oldest and most relevant Marian shrines in the Lublin region. Over the centuries devotion grew, many exvotes were collected and thanks attributed to the intercession of the Virgin, and the sanctuary was shaping its diocesan and regional importance.
The image and the sanctuary
La image of Our Lady of Kębło is a Gothic sculpture of the Virgin with the Child, dating around the centuries XIII/XIV, tallada en wood. This size, originating in the village of Kębło, is the one that gives name to the advocation Mother of Boża Kębelska. This is a representation of Mary as the Mother of God, who supports the Child Jesus, venerated as a miraculous image by the faithful of the region.
El sanctuary is in Tartarus (voivodship / department of Lublin, Poland) and is linked to the parish of San Adalberto (św. Wojciecha). The present parish temple, dedicated to San Adalberto, was built between 1907 y 1914 in the neo-Gothic style of red brick, with a three-ship plant. Within the Sanctuary-parish complex is the chapel that preserves the medieval figure of the Virgin with the Child. The shrine of Wąwolnica is recognized as Shrine of Our Lady of Kębeland is described by local sources as one of the oldest and most important Marian shrines in the Lublin region. The church of San Adalberto in Wąwolnica is designated as minor basilica by local authorities and tourist dissemination materials. Next to the temple is also a Museum of the Sanctuary with exvotes and thanksgiving received.
In addition to the main temple, it is part of the devotional set the Kębło chapel, built on the rock where, according to tradition, the apparitions took place and where the so-called "prints" of the Virgin are preserved, as well as a spring considered miraculous within the same religious complex of Wąwolnica-Kębło.
Sponsorship and coronation
Our Lady of Kębło is the Marian advocation of the Lublin region and one of the most significant shrines in the area. It is a reference place for the archdiocese of Lublinwho every year organizes their diocesan celebrations there in honor of the Virgin. The advocation also receives the popular appeal of "Advocate of the homeland" (Mothership Advocate), stressing its spiritual patronage dimension over the Polish nation, at least in the field of popular piety.
The figure of the Virgin of Kębło was canonically crowned with papal crowns on September 10, 1978. The diocesan sources and the sanctuary mention the "coronation of the figure with papal crowns"but they do not explicitly indicate in the texts consulted the name of the Pontiff or of the Pontifical Delegate present in the act. Given the year, the coronation is placed in the pontificate of San Pablo VI, who died in August 1978; however, the accessible documentation does not detail the decree or the name of the delegate, so that only the date and coronation character with papal crowns.
Party and devotion
Las main parties in honor of Our Lady of Kębło in Wąwolnica are celebrated each year the first Sunday of September. The archdiocese of Lublin describes these celebrations as "annual diocesan solemnities" in honor of the Virgin of Kębło, both linked to 8 September, Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, like the Coronation annuality of the image with papal crowns (September 10, 1978). On this date a novena (29 September - 6 September) and, during the main weekend, a wide liturgical programming with masses, processions and prayer vigil.
Devotion is especially expressed through the pilgrimages: faithful come from all over the region of Lublin and from other parts of Poland, both the Wąwolnica shrine and the Kębło chapel, especially in August (the Feast of the Assumption - Our Lady of Herbs - with pilgrimages and night vigil) and in September, during the main party. Although the sources consulted do not provide official flow figures, they stress that "every day pilgrims come."and that the sanctuary has a significant influence on the spiritual life of the parish, with numerous active Marian groups and movements.
The presence of a "Złota Księga Łask" collection of testimonies of favors received - preserved lives, health recovery, help in difficult situations - along with numerous exvotes left in the chapel as an expression of thanks. Popular piety is manifested in processions with the image, vigil, Marian songs and traditional practices linked to the liturgical and agricultural calendar (especially around the Assumption and the harvest).
Link to the Rosary
The specific sources on the Wąwolnica shrine explicitly highlight the presence of a "Plac Różańcowy" (Plaza del Rosario) next to the Basilica, built as an expression of the development of the Marian cult especially after the coronation of the figure of the Virgin of Kębło in 1978. This square is designed to host great outdoor celebrations, including the prayer of the Community Rosary during the main holidays and pilgrimages. The official programme of diocesan solemnities includes, for example, a "Thanksgiving Rosary" on the afternoon of the main Sunday party.
It does not contain a specific historical link of this advocation with a fellowship of the Rosary or a particular rosarian title (as "Virgin of the Rosary"). However, the strong Marian character of the sanctuary, the existence of the Rosari Square
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Pray Hail MaryDocumentary extension: Kębło and Wąwolnica
The fact sheet refers to the same devotional set that the research calls Our Lady of Kębło or Wąwolnica: the place of the traditional account is in Kębło and the venerated image is preserved in the sanctuary of Wąwolnica. This precision avoids treating Kębło and Wąwolnica as two different sanctuaries when ecclesial sources explain the continuity between them. The Archdiocese of Lublin describes the transfer of the figure to the church of Wąwolnica and the permanence of devotion in that sanctuary.
Tradition places the origin of veneration in the Tatar incursion of 1278. According to the account transmitted by the sanctuary, an extraordinary light would have surrounded the figure in Kębło and the attackers would have left the place. The story is part of the devotional memory of the advocation; the fact sheet does not present it as a historical reconstruction demonstrated in all its details. The existence of the sanctuary, the veneration of the figure, the transfer and the subsequent coronation do belong to the institutional history that the current sources describe.
The official page of the sanctuary states that the figure was crowned with papal crowns on September 10, 1978, with the consent of Paul VI, by the bishop of Lublin Bolesław Pylak, during the anniversary that the sanctuary links to the seven hundred years of the tradition of apparitions. Coronation recognizes the antiquity and extension of the cult, but does not automatically turn the medieval account into an apparition approved according to the current categories. This is why the fact sheet maintains the distinction between allowed veneration, tradition of the place and judgment of supernatural.
The 1978 celebration is described as a massive and marked by rain. The sanctuary also conserves a journey of crosses related to the mysteries of the Rosary and celebrates an annual feast of the Mother of God of Kębło on the first Sunday of September. It's data from the pilgrim life of the place. The processions, the vigil and the prayer of the Rosary express the prayer of the faithful and the request for intercession of Mary; they are not independent evidence of a cure or of a concrete miracle.
The local name should also be kept in the history of the file: Mother of Boża Kębelska identifies the image and its memory, while Wąwolnica identifies the sanctuary in which it is currently venerated. In this way the geography of devotion is respected and a second page is not created by a difference of place.
Sources of this enlargement
- Archdiocese of Lublin, celebrations of Our Lady of Kębło in Wąwolnica, HTTP 200.
- Wąwolnica Sanctuary, image coronation, consulted as institutional reference; the direct download from this server returned error 500 and is not used as local HTTP check.
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