Cardinal Adam Stefan Sapieha - Krakow, Poland
Posted by: 
Metro2
N 50° 03.563 E 019° 56.130
34U E 423805 N 5545775
Located at the entrance to the Church of St. Francis of Assisi in Krakow.
Waymark Code: WMQ2G8
Location: Małopolskie, Poland
Date Posted: 12/06/2015
Views: 9
This life-sized bronze sculpture depicts Cardinal Adam Stefan Sapieha in a somewhat stylized manner. The figure is very thin and holds his hands to his lips as if in prayer.
His clothing is indistinct...and he probably wears clerical robes.
The figure is on a granite plinth about 5 feet tall and reads:
" MODLITWA W CIEMNA NOC
OKUPACJI
KARDINAL
ADAM STEFAN
SAPIEHA
1867 - 1951"
which Google translates as:
"PRAYER IN THE DARK NIGHT
OCCUPATION
CARDINAL
ADAM STEFAN
Sapieha
1867 - 1951 "
Wikipedia (
visit link) adds:
"Prince Adam Stefan Stanislaw Bonifacy Józef Sapieha (Polish pronunciation: ['adam 'st?fan sa'p??xa]; 14 May 1867 – 23 July 1951) was a Polish cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church who served as Archbishop of Kraków. Between 1922–1923 he was a senator of the Second Polish Republic (Polish Rzeczpospolita). In 1946, Pope Pius XII created him Cardinal...
In March 1945, he initiated the publication of Tygodnik Powszechny. He was created Cardinal-Priest, of the title of Santa Maria Nuova, on 18 February 1946. On 1 November 1946 he conferred priestly ordination on Karol Wojtyla in the chapel of his episcopal residence.
After the Kielce pogrom he provided aid for the affected Jews.
Sapieha knew Karol Wojtyla (later John Paul II) was destined to become a priest when a young Karol delivered a welcoming speech during the archbishop's visit to his school. Some people consider him a mentor of Pope John Paul II. In 1949, he proposed that Stefan Wyszynski, Metropolitan Archbishop of Gniezno and Warsaw since 12 November 1948, should be termed Primate of Poland. The following year, 1950, he wrote letters to then-Polish president Boleslaw Bierut protesting Bierut's repression of the church. Sapieha died on 23 July 1951, and his funeral on 28 July turned into a political demonstration. He was buried in the Wawel Cathedral, in a crypt under the confessional of St. Stanislas."