On the morning of August 18, the grounds of the National Shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa, in Doylestown, PA, teemed with life. A throng of veterans, scouts, dignitaries, and others, come together to celebrate Polish Armed Forces Day. Following an outdoor ceremony, the participants attended Mass indoors, ended with a choir performance. The festivities concluded with a picnic offering a traditional Polish military meal.
The “Polish Arlington”
Founded in 1953, Our Lady of Czestochowa shrine in Doylestown grew from a simple barn-chapel to a sprawling complex. Today the shrine encompasses a cemetery, monuments, church, and more. Also referred to as the American Czestochowa, it serves as a place of pilgrimage for Polish Catholics in the United States. Cardinal Karol Wojtyła, the future Pope John Paul II, visited twice, first in 1969 and then in 1976.
Besides being a place of prayer and worship the shrine is also a place of historical remembrance. Inside the cemetery is a section for Polish veterans where hundreds are buried, whose headstones are all alike- a stone cross affixed with a metal Polish military eagle. Most of them served in World War II, but those that fought in other wars are also present.
Among the neat row of graves are veterans of all of Poland’s major battles and campaigns of WWII. They include airmen from Nos. 302 and 303 Polish Squadrons of Battle of Britain fame, one of them the ace pilot Witold Urbanowicz. Also are those of Polish II Corps who stormed the monastery at Monte Cassino in Italy in 1944. Several jumped into Holland with the 1st Independent Parachute Brigade in Operation Market Garden. Still, many more units and formations are represented in the cemetery section.
Comrades in arms, men and women, lay side-by-side, united in their shared struggle for an independent Poland.
Several times a year, celebrations take place to commemorate the different groups of veterans. One of them is Polish Armed Forces Day which remembers the Polish victory in the Battle of Warsaw on August 15, 1920. The battle saw Polish forces route a Bolshevik army on the verge of capturing Warsaw. Its remembrance is a day of military parades and ceremonies, commemorating active personnel, veterans, and the dead.
Click here to learn about another Polish Veterans burial section in Niles, Illinois
Polish Armed Forces Day, 2024
This year’s Polish Armed Forces Day celebration at the American Czestochowa began under an overcast sky. At 11 a.m. a wreath was laid in the cemetery’s veteran’s section. Half an hour later a flag bearing ceremony and parade took place in front of the shrine’s church. The attendees then went inside the church for Mass, which concluded with a choir performance of patriotic Polish songs.
Ending the celebrations was a picnic. Volunteers served grochówka, pea soup with chunks of pork, a traditional Polish army meal, out of a military field kitchen. Under a hot sun, the veterans and guests ate, laughed, and bonded.
Organizing the event was the Polish Army Veterans Assocation in America (PAVA). Many of its posts came to attend the celebration, bringing along with them their own standards. Besides them other Polish organizations were also in attendance. The Polish Scouting Association in New York came with boys and girls. Dressed in the pale-blue capes with pink lining were members of PAVA’s Ladies Auxiliary Corps. Donning white tunics with gold epaulets and black shakos faced with a metal eagle, was the Pulaski Cadets– a historical organization.
Representatives of the Polish government attended as well. One of the honored guests was the Consul General in New York, Mateusz Sakowicz. From Poland’s Defense Attaché Office in Washington, D.C. came Army Col. Sylwester Szopieraj and Navy Capt. Bogdan Liput.
A handful of World War II veterans and survivors, those that endured deportation to the Soviet Union in the early 1940s, often to the unforgiving Siberian landscape, managed to attend this year’s celebration. Today very few are left. During mass, the younger members of PAVA were asked to help their WWII brethren up to the sanctuary, where they took seats next to the altar. The survivors included a veteran of the U.S. Army in the Korean War.
All together the day was a joyous affair. Thankfully there was enough grochówka for everyone.
