Fr. Ignacy Skorupka and The Miracle of the Vistula 1920

1930 painting: "Cud nad wisłą 1920” (Das Wunder an der Weichsel 1920) by Jerzy Kossak

In 1918, with the german withdrawal from eastern europe following the november armistice ending the first world war and a state of civil war in russia due to communst revolution, the Polish people were presented with the opportunity of realising their long dream of restoring the polish state. 

Poland had often found herself a victim of geography, placed between a mighty Russia and an opportunistic central Europe. With the Spartacist revolt (an attempted communist revolution) in Germany and the bolshevik dream of exporting communism via world revolution, Poland found herself in an extremely precarious situation.

The realisation of the dream of an independent and Christian state was mutually exclusive with the bolshevik idea of world revolution by means of class war. Inevitably Poland found herself at war with the USSR in an attempt to define the future borders and ideological structure of the new polish state.

The war would see the mass mobilisation of all sectors of Polish society. The struggle was seen as a supernatural and physical war against the demonic power of communism. Poland would use on her historical consciousness to emphasise her role as the defender of European civilisation (Christendom) in defence of outside evil forces (the so called Antemurale Christianitatis role).

Christendom was contrasted with evil communist barbarism and to inspire the population, the struggle was put into the context of the 1683 liberation of Vienna from the besieging Ottoman Turks, the glorious moment in Polish History in which a strong, independent, Catholic Poland saved Christendom from those who would destroy it. Just as the fate of Europe was decided at the gates of Vienna in 1683, the fate of Europe would once more be decided by Christian soldiers, but this time at the gates of Warsaw.

Thus, Piłsudski with his Uhlans and fighter airplanes became the new Sobieski and his winged hussars. This can be seen in many propaganda artworks of the time, for example Karol Maszkowski’s 1920 work “Under thy protection we seek refuge!” or the later artwork by Jerzy Kossak entitled “The Miracle of the Vistula 1920”.

“Pod Twoją obronę uciekamy się” (Unter deinem Schutz suchen Wir Zuflucht!) (Under thy protection we seek refuge)

Karol Maszkowski, Poland, 1920, from the collection of the Polish Army Museum in Warsaw

In both examples we see the common elements of the winged hussars and the image of the Virgin Mary,  Maszkowski’s features Our Lady of Czestochowa (a traditional depiction of Mary in Polish Catholicism, in which Sobieski entrusted the fate of the Battle of Vienna in 1683) and Kossak’s Our Lady of the Assumption (as the battle of the Vistula took place on that feast day).

There was a clear juxtaposition of the Christian soilers of Poland and the communist enemy who were portrayed as agents of the devil. Communist soldiers were depicted as siberian mongols, skeltons (death), satanic demons and jews with stars of David (often shown in implied promiscuous sexual relationships with women). In contrast the Polish soldiers were portrayed with flags of the Virgin Mary and celebiate nuns caring for the wounded. 

Collection of digital posters of the Hoover Institute, 1920, artist unknown. “O co sie bije żołnierz bolszewicki. O co walczy żołnierz polski” (“"What a Bolshevik soldier fights for. What a Polish soldier fights for").

Over the course of the war, one example of sacrifice and supernatural outlook in particular would be used to both inspire the polish army in its ongoing war with the Soviets and also explain the unlikely decisive victory at the battle of Warsaw in 1920 which became known as the Miracle of the Vistula.

P. Ignacy Skorupka was Polish priest who volunteered to be the military chaplain to a volunteer unit of Polish school boys and university students in 1920. Leading an infantry charge across an open field, into enemy gunfire, the priest was killed. Multiple eyewitness accounts described how he prayed the “Hail Mary” and shouted “Forward! Forward! In the name of Christ Forward!” to the young men. 

His body was removed to Warsaw for an extremely large funeral. A battlefield report from the General Staff on 16 August stated that; “It is with particular appreciation that the heroic death of Father Ignacy Skorupka, chaplain of the 8th Infantry Division, who led hundreds of attacking troops with a crucifix in his hand, should be emphasised.”

(“Ze szczególnym uznaniem należy podkreślić bohaterską śmierć kapelana księdza Ignacego Skorupki z VIII dywizji piechoty, który w stule i z krzyżem w ręku przodował atakującym oddziałom”.)

“Helsztyński Stanisław. Bohater Warszawy ks. kapelan Skorupka.”

(Dr Stanisław Helsztyński. The Hero of Warsaw, Military Chaplain Fr. Skorupka). Poznan - Warschau - Vilnius - Lublin [1937].

Józef Makowicz noted the following year (1921) that Fr. Skorupka and the university students understood themselves in the context of a long line of Poles fighting for a Christen Europe and had a self awareness of the momentous moment in history and their role in it:

“The chaplain of this regiment, priest Skorupka, understood that a moment of history had come, a breakthrough moment, that the fate of his beloved Warsaw was hanging on the back of these soldiers; he felt that everyone must now be a hero, one must not hesitate.”

(“Kapelan tego pułku, ksiądz Skorupka, zrozumiał, że nadeszła chwila dziejowa, przełomowa, że na odwali dze tych żołnierzy zawisł los ukochanej Warszawy; odczuł, że każdy musi teraz być bohaterem, nie wolno się wahać.”)

Kto w Boga wierzy... (He who believes in God), author unknown, Poland, year 1920, in the collection of the Polish Army Museum in Warsaw

Poland needed heros, now more than ever. They were fighting for their homeland and felt that divine will was on their side. The soviets could not say the same. A successful cavalry charge surrounded the soviet army and forced it to retreat in a chaotic state. The parallels to Sobieski's victory were strong. Just as Sobieki had been the hero of the day in 1683, Piłsudski and his supporters sought to depict him in the same way. 

Many thought that the story of Fr Ignacy and the battle being a supernatural miracle would take away from Piłsudski’s personal human achievement. Thus a counter narrative emerged not long after the battle suggesting that the priest could have been fatally wounded while serving in a more conventional way, not on the front line of an infantry charge. This however is contrary to the eye witness accounts of all survivors. The company commander Mieczyslaw Slowukowski wrote in memories that he had seen the exact moment that the priest was shot leading the charge on enemy lines.

Makowicz writes after the battle how the significance of the supernatural should not be underestimated in understanding the victory of the Polish army when faced with the superior might of the Soviet Army;

“The sun rising on the day of the Ascension, the Virgin Mary over the dead body of the hero made a bright halo of the dawn rays around the bloody head".

(“Słońce wschodząc w dniu Wniebowzięcia, Maryi Panny nad martwymi zwłokami bohatera uczyniło około skrwawionej głowy jasną aureolę z promieni jutrzenki”).

The actions of Fr. Ignacy remain difficult to explain, from a secular perspective they may even seem insane, but to Catholics from a supernatural perspective it was a heroic act which had earned him a place in heaven as a martyr for the Faith. August 15th then became the polish armed forces day and remained so until the communist takeover after the second world war. It was however restored after the downfall of communism.

UK war Poster 1939

During the Second World War, Polish emigrants and exiles sought to continue the legacy of such Polish symbolism, comparing the Polish pilots of the war to the “knights of old”, once more acting in the Antemurale Christianitatis role, this time protecting Europe from both international and national socialism.

For obvious reasons the post World War Two communist imposed regime in Poland sought to de-emphasise and censor the Polish-Soviet war and specifically the supernatural perceptions of the war. Many street names were changed and when the millennium anniversary for the baptism of the first polish King to Catholicism (King Mieszko in 966 AD) came in 1966, the state sought to secularise the image of the Winged Hussars and the idea of Poland as a Catholic nation. 

This effort included the arrest of several priests (including bishops) and restrictions placed on the movement of the image of Our Lady of Czestochowa. Pope Paul VI had asked to travel to Poland for the occasion but was denied permission, in spite of him proactively attempting to improve relations with the communist authorities (including not denouncing communist states in the Second Vatican Council and removing a painting of Fr Ignacy from his summer residence Castello Gandolfo, which was commissioned by Pope Pius XI).

Pope Paul VI’s successor, Pope John Pual II, himself polish, continued in the same tradition of Fr Ignacy. He presided over the separate Cathoic millennium celebrations at the shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa at Jasna Góra Monastery . He later returned to his native Poland and the shrine in 1979 as Pope. His visit caused much worry for the communist authorities and his movement was strictly controlled. Later, after his visit Poland was put martial law by the communist regime and the Pope spoke out against communist tyranny.

In 1981 there was an assassionate attempt against the Pope in St Peter's square in the Vatican. The would-be assassin was Turkish and investigations suggested that he had been equipped and trained by communist Bulgaria and the USSR. This along with the Polish secret police kidnapping and murder of a polish priest named Fr. Jerzy Popiełuszko in 1984 led many poles to believe that communism has a direct enemy of the Church which should be fought by supernatural means. 

Many Poles still today believe that the failed assassination attempt can be seen with divine providence. The assassin who had labeled the Pope as “the leader of the crusader army” had successfully shot John Paul II, but had missed his artery by a fraction of a centimetre. The Pope was reported by his personal secretary to remain remarkably calm and repeated the Hail Mary prayer in polish, over and over again, on the way to the hospital. 

Pope Saint John Paul II moments after being shot St. Peter's Square, 13th May 1981

The date of the attack was the 13th May 1981, the anniversary of Our Lady of fatima. The third secret of Fatima (a Catholic Church approved divine apparition in Portugal 1917) was later revealed to be that there would be an attack on a Pope’s life. Pope John Paul II later announced to the world that he believed that the Virgin Mary had directly intervened to save his life.

He then in 1984 placed the bullet that had been removed from his body, in the crown of the statue of Our Lady of Fatima. The fact that he was the first Polish Pope and was born in 1920 only added to the national narrative of Poland as the protector of European Christendom. 

This militarised Catholic rhetoric lives on today in Polish Catholicism and especially where Catholicism and the military intersect. For example after the downfall of communism Pope Saint John Paul II reestablished the “Military Ordinariate of Poland” and in 1991 Field-Bishop  Leszek Głódź wrote;

“We remember... Father Ignacy Skorupka, the hero of the 1920 war... These values have shaped our identity for a thousand years, were linked to Polish destiny in glory and defeat, have penetrated it to the very depths. Only then do we fulfill the Old Polish military slogan: God-Honor-Fatherland (“Bòg-Honor-Ojczyzna”) with a living, noble substance...The Holy Father (Pope John Paul II) sends me to you, brothers soldiers... My slogan is: Milito pro Christo (I fight for Christ)."

Jakub Baryła in Płock (Poland) August 2019

The legacy of Fr Ignacy Skorupka does however not remain merely in rhetoric but often is manifested in action. A recent example of this was the protest of a Polish Catholic teenager Jakub Baryła against an "LGBT" activist parade in Płock (Poland).

The parade in included a blasphemously edited image of Our Lady of Czestochowa (which the Polish Minister of the Interior Brudziński called "cultural barbarism").

Baryła stood in the way of the parade and held a crucifix in his hand in protest. He was forcibly taken away by the riot police and when asked about his motive, he said that he was inspired by the concrete example of Fr. Ignacy Skorupka in 1920.

Thus, many Poles feel that the legacy of great Polish heroes of the past lives on into the 21st century and beyond. This is what Józef Makowicz had wished for when he wrote in 1921:

"This priestly citizen, in the highest sense of the word, fulfilled a great role in Poland's mission to the peoples of the world. Because Poland is still at the forefront of Europe, it protected the Western countries from the Tartars from the 13th century onwards, then from the Turks and the Cossacks, and now it stood on the frontline against the Bolshevik invasion. So the priest Skorupka died not only for the defence of Warsaw, but also for the defence of Europe and Christian culture in general".

Niall Buckley

May 2020