Join Fr. Kaim on pilgrimage as we explore the amazing country of Poland!
Almost Sold-Out! – Some of the sites you will visit are St. Faustina’s convent and tomb, the Salt Mines, Our Lady of Czestochowa & the Black Madonna, Auschwitz, St. Maximillian Kolbe’s home and tomb, the Zakopane Mountains, many sites surrounding John Paul II, Krakow, Warsaw and more! Throughout the entire trip you will travel with both an English and a Polish speaking guide on a coach bus. You will experience the culture, the food and the Catholicism of this great country. As with all Holy Family trips, this one will fill quickly. Register today for this inspiring pilgrimage!
Other Details: The cost is $3299 per person double occupancy, additional $450 for a single room. If you would like to join the group flight and add your roundtrip airfare from Chicago (O’Hare), the additional cost is $1299 per person. This price includes hotel for 9 nights, daily transportation on a coach bus, breakfast daily, all but one dinner with wine, all tours, entrance fees, gratuities & daily Mass. $500 due to secure registration if you purchase your own airfare or $750 at time of registration to be included in the group flight; final payment due on or before January 1, 2025.
Itinerary
The pilgrimage includes:
- Accommodations: Warsaw (1 night), Częstochowa (1 night), Krakow (3 nights) and Zakopane (2 nights), with breakfast included daily
- Transportation by coach bus
- English-speaking leaders for the whole pilgrimage
- Entry tickets: Popiełuszko Museum, Jasna Gora monastery, Auschwitz, Wieliczka, Gubalowka funicular, Wadowice (with audioguide), St. Mary’s basilica, Łagiewniki and all sites
- Guided tours of Jasna Gora monastery, Łagiewniki, Auschwitz and Wieliczka
- Dinner (for all but one night) w/wine
- All tips and gratuities
- Mass & Spiritual guidance daily
Not included:
*lunch each day
*airfare
*extra spending money
Day 1 - Thursday, May 29
* Depart for overnight flight to Warsaw, Poland.
Day 2 - Friday, May 30
- Arrival in Warsaw Group dinner with wine.
- Meet & Greet with the tour leaders at the airport and transfer to the hotel.
- Mass close to hotel
- Group dinner w/wine
- Overnight in Warsaw
Day 3 - Saturday, May 31
- Morning visit to St Stanislaw Kostka Church where the famous Polish priest, killed by communists, Jerzy Popieluszko used to work & see the exhibit
- Holy Mass at the church
- Departure from Warsaw and drive to Niepokalanów and visit to the home of St Maximilian Kolbe
- Departure and visit to Glogowiec – birthplace of St Faustina, where Jesus appeared to her in 1931 and requested she painted the picture of his Divine Mercy
- Departure to Czestochowa Group dinner w/wine
- Group dinner w/wine
- Overnight in Częstochowa
Day 4 - Sunday, June 1
- Visit to the Pauline Monastery at Jasna Gora in Czestochowa – the Polish Lourdes – the most important pilgrimage site in Poland with its famous icon of the Black Madonna. At the monastery at Jasna Gora, we’ll see the hall of the knights, the treasury, the arsenal, and a museum.
- Departure to Krakow
- Group dinner w/wine
- Overnight in Krakow at Divine Mercy Shrine Guest House
Day 5 - Monday, June 2
- “The world needs the love of God” – Brief Morning Tour of the Sanctuary of Divine Mercy of God. The Pope during his stay in Poland in August 2002 proclaimed the International Shrine of Divine Mercy. Next to the old church where the sister Saint Faustina is buried, rises a new basilica. Near the basilica, there is the highest point of Krakow, a tower of over 80m height. The largest mass is held on the second Sunday after Easter, the Sunday of Divine Mercy.
- Holy Mass in the chapel.
- 5-hour guided visit of Krakow including the Old Town with its Market Square (the largest medieval square in Europe) where you can listen to the famous signal that is played every hour from the tower of St. Mary’ Church (visit to its altar – one of the largest Gothic altar in Europe). In this church Karol Wojtyla was a confessor from 1952 until 1957). After the visit, we continue to Kazimierz – the former Jewish quarter which has become one of the most popular in the city, thanks to its atmosphere. There was a Jewish ghetto during the Second World War, and this is where Steven Spielberg shot scenes for his “Schindler’s List”. On the program: the Palace of the Krakow’ Archbishops where John Paul II lived as the bishop and archbishop of Krakow, the Franciscan Church – opposite the Archbishop’s palace where the Pope often came to pray. Here he even had his favorite bench. The church of Saint Florian where John Paul II worked with students. He traveled with them and these young people often called him Wujek (uncle). Visit to the cemetery Rakowice – visiting the tomb of the Pope’s parents. Wawel Cathedral & more.
- Group dinner w/wine
- Overnight in Krakow
Day 6 - Tuesday, June 3
- Departure to the Wieliczka Salt Mine – one of the oldest mines in the world. In 1978, the mine was inscribed on the List of World Cultural and Natural Heritage of UNESCO. The accessible route for tourists is divided into three levels going over 135 meters deep. The St. Kinga Chapel, located 110 meters underground, is one of the most beautiful in the world.
- Visit to Auschwitz-Birkenau camps created by the Nazis in 1940. Nowadays there is a museum holding evidence of Nazi crimes. In block number 11 called the Death Block, there is a cell of St. Maximilian Kolbe. Infamous Nazi concentration camp with gas chambers and morbid artifacts displaying horrors of the Nazi regime.
- Group dinner w/wine
- Overnight in Krakow
Day 7 - Wednesday, June 4
- Departure to Wadowice – a Mass in the Basilica where Karol Wojtyla was baptized on May 20th, 1920
- Visit the John Paul II biographical museum in his family house
- Departure to Zakopane – the ski resort located at the foot of the Tatra Mountains. Zakopane is a town presenting rich authentic mountaineer traditions, wood-made constructions, and rustic wooden architecture
- Dinner on your own tonight. Enjoy!
- Overnight in Zakopane
Day 8 - Thursday, June 5
- Morning 3-hour guided tour in Zakopane and the Tatra Mountains where Bishop Karol Wojtyla’s favorite place to relax. The Tatra highlanders were equally fond of the Holy Father. We will attend Mass in the Church of Our Lady of Fatima, one of the most beautiful churches in Poland, founded by the residents of Zakopane out of gratitude that John Paul II’s life was spared in the assassination attempt. We will take the cable car ride up to Gubalowka peak for a magnificent view of the Tatra Mountains,
- Visit to Chochołów, a remarkable village of traditional wooden houses, followed by a stroll up one of the valleys at the foot of the mountains.
- Free time
- Farewell group dinner with beer and wine in a regional restaurant in the mountains with the accompaniment of traditional highlander folk music
- Overnight in Zakopane
Day 9 - Friday, June 6
- Morning Bus taking you back to Warsaw for your flight to Chicago.
