Działalność Domu Rekolekcyjnego OO. Jezuitów w Czechowicach-Dziedzicach w okresie międzywojennym

Abstract

[The activity of the Retreat House of Jesuit Fathers in Czechowice-Dziedzice in the interwar period]

In 1905 Jesuits from the Galician Province of the Society of Jesus opened the Retreat House in Czechowice which was the first establishment of this type on the Polish lands. Until the outbreak of World War I many people, both clergymen and laymen including numerous workers from the neighbouring Upper Silesia, participated in the retreats in Czechowice. After the end of war the Jesuits resumed their retreat activity. Year by year, more and more people participated. The House had a library of spiritual works. The Jesuits cooperated with Wydawnictwo Apostolstwa Modlitwy in Krakow which provided books and magazines dealing with the topic of retreat. For some time, the House functioned as the place of the third probation i.e. the place where young fathers spend the last period of monastic formation before making their final vows. Apart from retreat, the Jesuits from the House in Czechowice organized various courses and meetings as well as worked as people’s missionaries in the entire Poland. The visit of the apostolic nuncio, Archbishop Francesco Marmaggi was a sign of appreciation of their work. The Jesuits also practiced pastoral activity at St. Joseph’s Retreat Chapel where various religious communities, including Sodalities of Our Lady and Apostleship of Prayer, were created. The last important event in which they participated were the celebrations connected with the return of St. Andrew Bobola’s relic to Poland. On 10th April 1940 Gestapo arrested the Jesuits form the Retreat House who were taken to the concentration camp in Dachau near Munich. Not all of them returned to Poland after 1945 when the Retreat House resumed its activity.