Maria Sztuka, Pielgrzymki śląskie do Ziemi Świętej w latach 1840–1914 (Silesian pilgrimages to the Holy Land in the years 1840-1914), University Gazette of the University of Silesia” (July-September 2017), 10 (250) - wywiad z prof. Jerzym Myszorem, autorem książki pt. Silesian pilgrimages to the Holy Land in the years 1840-1914, Katowice 2017.
The result of the painstaking search and research of Prof. Jerzy Myszor is a publication entitled „Silesian Pilgrimages to the Holy Land in the Years 1840-1914. Studies and Materials“ (Katowice 2017). The journeys of Silesians to the Holy Land, discussed in the work, are set in the extensive socio-political context of both Palestine and Silesia at that time. The author also devoted much attention to the pilgrimage as a social and religious phenomenon. The book also traces the traditional pilgrimage routes and all traces of Polish, and especially Silesian, pilgrimage in the Holy Land. The whole book closes with an in-depth consideration of the impact of pilgrimage on the piety of the 19th and 20th centuries.
The basic question that usually accompanies the researcher, the why, was directed at three main areas. It first arose when reading the studies of historians and pastoralists, who, when dealing with pilgrimages, often reduce the subject to peculiar anecdotes, stories about the so-called “singers, the road, the songs,” while from a sociological or theological perspective they treated them with a certain amount of disregard. So it was understandable from the researcher's point of view to find an answer to the question: why such depreciation of pilgrimage? Another question was raised by the tremendous increase in the popularity of pilgrimages to the Holy Land in the mid-19th century, while a third concerned passion piety, especially the Stations of the Cross service, which had taken hold in Catholic churches since the late 18th century.
I asked myself,“ recalls the professor, ”whether there was any connection between pilgrimages to the Holy Land in the 19th century and the almost spontaneous development of various manifestations of the cult of the Passion of Christ in popular piety.
The researcher was also prompted to take up the topic by an unusual reading of diaries of pilgrimages from the early 20th century.
- I came across the publications of Joseph Goy," the researcher continues. - These are diaries of journeys to holy places, referring in form to the existing travel literature, but they are an exceptionally valuable testimony to the level of cultural and religious sophistication of a simple peasant, expressing his impressions very sincerely and therefore authentically. Jozef Goj of Brzezinka wrote as well as he could, using Polish in a dialect form - Silesian. The reading proved to be an excellent inspiration, given that few diaries from this period have survived in Silesia," the Rev. Professor states.
The initial stage of the research consisted of painstaking research, often by feel. It was first necessary to trace the paths of pilgrims, starting from Bogumin, where the rail routes in Silesia crossed from north to south, through Vienna, Trieste to Jaffa, the most important port in the land of Palestine which is the gateway to Jerusalem. It was necessary to determine not only who the statistical pilgrim was, but also his or her personalities, place of origin, occupation and shrines visited. Reaching the existing censuses even required Benedictine patience and the intuition necessary in the work of a scientist. Classification of travelers to the Holy Land was usually done in the hospices where they stayed, based on the language they spoke. In the case of pilgrims arriving from Silesia, there was no problem if the registering Franciscan was a Pole, as he could inquire in detail about the place where the pilgrim was coming from. The situation became more complicated when a Frenchman, an Englishman, an Italian or a Spaniard registered the pilgrim - then the basic criterion became a passport or other identity document, and regardless of the language used, a Silesian was registered as a Catholic from Prussia.
- In Jerusalem, in the archives of the Custody, I made thousands of photocopies, which I meticulously reviewed and analyzed for many months (work on the book took more than three years). On the path of this search, a matter of course for a historian of the Church in Silesia, I had to meet an outstanding Franciscan, such as Father Wladyslaw Schneider at the time.
In the work of Fr. Professor J. Myszor, Fr. Wladyslaw, the first monk to work (in 1875-1887) in the Holy Land, occupies a special place. He was the founder in Silesia of the Society of the Holy Sepulchre - a branch of the Cologne-based journal Das heilige Land. He built a shelter for Silesian pilgrims in Emmaus, contributed to the establishment of a hospice for German pilgrims in Jerusalem (at the Damascus Gate), undertook the construction of a German school in Alexandria, and supported the nascent institutions of the Borromean nuns, successively in Alexandria, Jerusalem and Haifa. Upon his return to Silesia, he helped and participated in the design of the Calvary in Piekary Slaskie, and was also the organizer of the Bible Museum at the monastery on Mount St. Anne.
- Father Vladislav Schneider is the key to understanding the presence of Silesians in the Holy Land, the researcher explains.
The opening of the Ottoman Empire to the Western world, the rapid development of the Iron Railway and Lloyd's fleet of passenger ships not only facilitated travel to Jerusalem, but above all encouraged it. The radical change in political relations in the Ottoman Empire in the 1830s turned the Middle East into the center of an intense political game. It was fought by the Austrians, the French, the Russians, the English and, after 1870, the Germans as well. The pretext was the right to take care of the holy places, and the main goal was a military, political and economic presence in this crucial place for the world.
Dominated by the Muslim element, Palestine became a settlement destination. Pious Jews came for religious reasons to lay their bones in the Valley of Jehoshaphat at the end of their lives. Thanks to huge grants from British magnate and philanthropist Moses Montefiore, a wave of Jewish settlers began to arrive in Jerusalem from the mid-19th century, and a growing Jewish colony was established outside the walls of Jerusalem. The second half of the 19th century also saw the emergence of religiously motivated settlement plans, especially by German Protestants. It was hoped to convert incoming Jews to Christianity, which the utopian Templars intended as a sign of the end times, signifying the second coming of Jesus and the fulfillment of prophecies about the coming of the Kingdom of God. The most spectacular fruit of the Württemberg Templar settlements was the settlements in Palestine numbering several thousand settlers in all. Despite the boisterous announcements, however, in the end few decided to go to Palestine; in 1910 a colony of German settlers in Haifa numbered about 700, while similar, though less numerous, were being established in Jaffa, Sarona and Jerusalem. The Americans, French, Germans and British were also preparing to settle in Palestine.
- One of the groups colonizing Palestine was also supposed to be Silesians, the Rev. Professor explains. - Father Wladislaw, seeing the overpopulated villages in the Opole region, began to draw craftsmen from Silesia to Emmaus looking for work, creating the nucleus of a Silesian colony there - this was another clue to the researcher's search.
The first trace of a Silesian (without a surname) in Jerusalem was recorded in the 1830s by the well-known Swiss physician and dialect researcher, Evangelical Titus Tobler, who was then working and conducting research in Palestine. A Silesian man he met tried to force the doctor's support at the Franciscan hospice in Jerusalem, where he was not wanted back. After all, there was a rule there: every pilgrim could benefit from a free stay of several days in a hospice run by Franciscans, but only once in a lifetime. That's why the friars compiled meticulous censuses, today an invaluable source of knowledge for researchers.
Titus Tobler wrote of a Silesian he met: this is one of the last true pilgrims! A complete abnegate, with some sort of sack on his back, who walked half of Europe to Trieste, then reached Syria, and from Syria to Jerusalem; he went on pilgrimage to give thanks for saving his life twice. This motive was very authentic, and was followed by most pilgrims; they didn't see anything on the way, they didn't know the names of the cities they passed, all that mattered was the destination - Jerusalem. Similarly, Joseph Goj, who peregrinated to Lourdes, Rome, Santiago de Compostela, Loretto, four times to the Holy Land - wrote about his pilgrimages exclusively in religious terms, we will not find in his travel diaries a single reflection that would indicate that he felt like a tourist during his travels.
- This category of religiously motivated pilgrims has persisted and probably continues to this day despite changing external conditions that are capable of turning a pilgrim into a tourist, concludes the Rev. Professor. - The pilgrim knows that he or she is opting for hardship and even the danger of death. Some, therefore, took with them a coffin outfit, knowing that this could be their last earthly trek. Those who choose to go on pilgrimage do not seek any ease in the hardship of the journey. For them, the pilgrimage is a metaphor for life - in drudgery, in hardship, they head to their destination. When does a pilgrim turn into a tourist? When he begins to look for amenities, not hospices, but hotels, a higher standard of service, and sees mementos of history and art monuments along the route of his journey at the shrine, rather than a trace of God's presence.
- I agree with the view that the pilgrimage is a metaphor for the journey of human life. Regardless of religion, it is hardwired into our DNA. In the case of Christianity, it is a path where holy places contain an element of encounter with the sacred and the profane, where God's presence can be touched. So I believe that churches may be emptying, but the same person who does not see his place in the parish church, touched by some inner impulse at some point in his life will pack a backpack and go on a pilgrimage. This is an indestructible archetype," concludes Prof. Jerzy Myszor.