Parafia Rokitno

Description

Rokitno as a castellan castle-town existed as early as in the middle of the 13th century having two parishes, the so-called “upper” (of St. Wojciech) and “lower” (of St. Jakub). The settlement was located on the route of Vistula crossing and for several centuries constituted the emolument of Warsaw archdeacons. After moving the local castellany to the capital at the beginning of the 17th century the “castle” church of St. Wojciech deteriorated which resulted in “absorbing” it by the parish of St. Jakub in 1704. Soon the wooden temple burnt down along with the manor house and the second church was completely rebuilt in baroque style according to the design of the architect Tomasz Bellotti (next to it a separate bell tower was erected with instruments casted in Wroclaw in 1746). What is interesting, the works lasted throughout the entire 19th century and ended in 1885 with the erection of two tall towers in the façade (the author of the idea was the architect Konstanty Wojciechowski from Warsaw). Next, the parish committee together with the parish priest Władysław Sędziakowski started the renovation of the temple (dehydrating the foundations, plastering the façade and repairing the copings). The interior still contained the altars transferred from the former churches (of St. Wojciech and St. Jakub) with paintings by Szymon Czechowicz and Franciszek Smuglewicz, however the most significant object was still the famous for its grace image of the Mother of God with the Christ child probably from the 16th century. In the following years the floors were masoned, Stations of the Cross and statues in the façade (by Jan Jerzy Plersch) were constructed. An ambo and wardrobes for the sacristy were ordered. Unfortunately, the temple suffered greatly during the First World War as it was bombarded by the Russian and German artillery. After Poland regained independence in 1918 the church was rebuilt but at the beginning of 1945 the Soviets shot at the building depriving it of its characteristic towers. In 1966, in front of the painting of the Mother of God with the Christ child prayed Primate Stefan Wyszyński and two years later conducted the re-consecration of the church and coronation of the miraculous image. Since 1986 the building has been taken care of by the Orionine Fathers (a congregation helping the poor) and in 2004 the church’s rank was raised to a Marian shrine of the Warsaw archdiocese. In the vicinity a mound was erected with a plaque dedicated to commemorating the Poles fighting in the Russian and Prussian armies during the First World War.

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