schema:articleBody
| - A centuries-old Catholic pilgrimage in Poland was cancelled Tuesday for the first time in history after participants defied official coronavirus distancing orders to hold the march. The trek normally draws huge crowds for a long walk to Poland's most revered monastery in Czestochowa, home to an ancient painting of the Black Madonna icon believed to work miracles. A group of several hundred pilgrims led by their local priest set off on a 200-kilometre (124-mile) journey by foot from the central town of Lowicz to Czestochowa before they were intercepted by police Monday. "They (police) took us to a large parking lot, so we fled across the fields," participant Alicja Klimkiewicz told the local Lowiczanin.info website. "We managed to get back on the road before they stopped us from going any further," she added. The pilgrims defied social distancing rules banning gatherings of more than 30 people who must keep two meters (more than six feet) apart to prevent coronavirus infections. But Father Wieslaw Frelek, who organised the 365th edition of the pilgrimage, told local broadcaster Radio Victoria on Tuesday that "everyone will go home". "There's a ban and that's it," he said after police intercepted the pilgrims a second time. The first pilgrimage from Lowicz to Czestochowa's Jasna Gora -- which means 'Luminous Mount' in Polish -- monastery took place in 1656. Church leaders say that despite Poland's turbulent history, including two world wars, the Lowicz pilgrimage was never called off before. It is one of dozens of similar events that see thousands of faithful trek hundreds of kilometers by foot across Poland to pray to the revered Black Madonna icon. Many people in the predominantly Roman Catholic EU country of 38 million believe the ancient icon, whose dark skin bears two scars, holds special powers and offers protection during invasions and in times of war. sw/via/mas/jv
|