The Battle of Vienna (1683): The Clash that Saved Europe

In the early morning of 12 September 1683, in the ruins of the church of St Joseph on Kahlenberg Hill near Vienna burnt by the Turks, Mark of Aviano, an Italian Capuchin sometimes referred to as the ‘spiritual father of Europe’, celebrated Mass for the success of the battle against the Ottoman Empire. The King…


1 September 1939: The beginning of hell

“This means war. From now on, all other matters and issues become of secondary importance”, stated the message broadcast by Polish Radio on the morning of 1 September 1939. “We set our public and private lives on a special track. We have entered war. The entire effort of the nation must go in one direction….


The Last Game

The first official football match of the Polish national team was played on December 18, 1921, in Budapest. Hungary won 1-0. Interestingly, the last match played by Poland before the outbreak of World War II was also against Hungary. On August 27, 1939, at the Warsaw stadium of the Polish Army named after Marshal Józef…


St. Maria Faustina Kowalska and the cult of Divine Mercy

The cult of Divine Mercy, which has its roots in Poland, is one of the most important and widespread forms of Catholic devotion both at the end of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st centuries. The character of the cult is undoubtedly universal – whether in Latin America or Japan, Australia or Poland…


Jan Kowalewski’s three victories

An inscrutable face, a short moustache, today bringing no good associations yet a century ago almost a classic feature of an officer’s image, and original service ribbons on his distinctions – from the Silesian Cross of Valour to the Order of the Rising Sun. The phrase ‘He took many secrets to his grave’ sounds like…


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