Post-Medullion Monastery in Wigry
Medals available next to the reception desk at the main entrance!
For many centuries, the Suwałki region was characterised by vast forests and a low level of civilisation. The Wigry Island – a hill surrounded by the waters of a lake due to its defensive location – was inhabited by the Baltic Jaćwing tribes, who were crushed in the second half of the 13th century by the Teutonic Knights. Already in the 11th century, the territory of the present-day diocese of Elk was embraced by St Bruno of Kerfurt (+1009) as a missionary. He initiated efforts to introduce ecclesiastical administration in this area. As is well known, he succeeded in this endeavour with the granting of the island of Wigry to the Camaldolese Order. The consistent and fruitful activities of the monks left their mark on the Pojavažie region for centuries to come.
In 1992, Pope John Paul II fully realised the original idea of the Church by establishing, with the bull ‘Totus tuus’, the diocese of Elk within the former Yotvingian lands.
In 1999, the young diocese of Elk, and in particular Wigry, had the honour of hosting from 8 to 10 June this greatest of the Polish Family ? Pope John Paul II. Certainly, the papal helicopter would not have landed on the Wigry peninsula at 2.25 p.m. on 8 June, had it not been for the presence of the Camaldolese Order here, with their beautiful testimony of life, prayer and work.
More than two centuries before the arrival of the Camaldolese monks to Wigry, King Władysław Jagiełło is said to have come across a hermitage here while hunting. However, the hermitage remained little known until the 17th century (according to historical records, there was a royal hunting lodge here in 1559). News of the hermitage reached Krakow. From there, the Camaldolese monks found out about it. They arrived in Poland (1603), visited the hermitage and, with the king’s permission, settled there – in 1668. This is how the king wrote about the arrival of the Camaldolese monks: The Reverend Father Wilga, the Superior of the Camedolion Fathers of Wigry, has informed us that the Reverend Bishop of Vilnius himself, reverend in God, has offered to come for the Introductory Feast of the Camedolions, of which we are very much content. Eremus Insulae Vigrensis is how the Camaldolese monastery was described in a privilege of 6 January 1667. The document was approved by the Sejm and the Bishop of Vilnius, Aleksander Sapieha, in the same year, and in the following years by successive rulers (after King Jan III Sobieski saved Europe near Vienna, crosses on crescents appeared on the towers of the Wigry church).
Despite its turbulent history, however, the monastery did not cease to exist.
The future of the monastery is in God’s hand. It seems that, following the example of the Camaldolese Fathers, the trust in God and the cult of the Immaculate Conception in this place make us look with hope to the future, despite the false information spread in the past and at present.
Wigry was enriched by the presence of Blessed John Paul II, also by his prayer in this place. For the diocese of Elk this is a great gift and a great challenge, which it wishes to take up in the spirit of fidelity to the papal and Camaldolese heritage. ‘Our desire is ? said the Bishop of Elk Jerzy Mazur in the shrine in Wigry – so that Wigry could become an areopagus of the new evangelisation in the north-eastern part of Poland. So that they radiate to the whole region, to our homeland, neighbouring countries and Europe’.
