Sanctuary of Our Lady, Patroness of Working Families, in Płoki

Miners have made pilgrimages to Płoki since the Middle Ages – hence the unusual title of its Madonna: Our Lady, Patroness of Working Families. The high altar of the Church of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary holds a 15th-century image of the Virgin and Child, painted in tempera on limewood boards and counted among the oldest images of Mary in Poland. Since 2024 the sanctuary has had a second treasure: the relics of Blessed Michał Rapacz, a priest murdered here in 1946.

History: a church on Zagajnik hill

Tradition says a church stood on the rocky Zagajnik hill as early as the 13th century, and a parish was created around 1300; a reliable record in the Peter's Pence lists dates from 1328. The village name is said to come from washing (płukanie) minerals mined nearby in the Strumień stream. The stone church mentioned by chronicler Jan Długosz burned down on 9 June 1793 together with the presbytery and archive. Its Neoclassical successor of 1811–1813 held only about 300 people, so after the Second World War the parish priest Dionizy Gąsiorek decided to pull it down. The new church, built in 1949–1951 largely with pilgrims' donations, holds about 2,000.

The miraculous image

The painting by an unknown master of the Kraków school follows the Byzantine Hodegetria type – Mary holds the Child on her left arm. It was painted in medieval tempera on three limewood boards, but in the 17th century it was overpainted in oils and given an engraved gilded Baroque background; a velvet backing was removed during conservation in 1977. It has been venerated as miraculous since the 17th century – in 1728 Bishop Michał Kunicki called it an "imago gratiosa", an image famed for graces. In September 1982 Cardinal Franciszek Macharski crowned it with papal crowns, and after the crowns were stolen he crowned it again.

Blessed Michał Rapacz

Father Michał Rapacz served in Płoki as curate and, from 1937, as parish administrator. On the night of 11–12 May 1946 a group of armed men came to his home; his body was found the next morning by a young cowherd. He was beatified on 15 June 2024 in Kraków-Łagiewniki. A sarcophagus with his relics stands in the church, and the Institute of National Remembrance has put up a cross where he died, in the parish woods.

Tripto tip

The main church festival falls on 8 September, the Nativity of the Virgin Mary, and lasts almost a week – before the Second World War up to 50,000 people came. If you want to see the image and the votive offerings in the chancel display cases in peace, come at another time; allow about an hour for the church and a short walk to the cross in the woods. Płoki lies in Trzebinia municipality, Chrzanów County, on the border between Lesser Poland and Upper Silesia; the sanctuary is on the pilgrim route from Częstochowa to Mariazell.