1

Remigiusz Mazur-Hanaj Cooperation: Marta Graban Butryn, Krzysztof Butryn

Sacrality of cultural landscape of Janów Lubelski

Research in the municipality of Janów Lubelski was carried out in October 2010

during two visits, which lasted one week. Due to its short duration the research is not

comprehensive but more of a reconnaissance. Its goal was to capture the overall image and

character of the sacral landscape of Janów and the surrounding villages. The research consists

of 21 interviews, of which 12 were recorded. More than 300 photographs were taken.

Therefore, this text is more of a sketch. I would like to thank Janów inhabitants Józef

Łukasiewicz and Zbigniew Butryn for their valuable help and advice.

H i s t o r i c a l s k e t c h

Janów Lubelski was founded relatively late. The relevant document was issued by

King Władyslaw IV in 1640.1 The initiative for the foundation of the town belonged to

Catherine Zamoyska, widow of the Grand Crown Chancellor, who wanted to develop the

Zamoyski estate.2 Janów lies in the vicinity of a huge forest complex called Puszcza

Sandomierska which has, since the end of the Middle Ages, been subject to a very slow

settlement process. The dynamic management of land, forestry trade, the development of

trade routes, communication and urbanization, that is to say, the creation of administrative

and economic centers, improved the administration of the estate and generated income

important in terms of the contemporary economic situation [Rożek 2000, p. 10-12].

From the historical perspective of the cultural landscape the most important aspect for

this work is religiosity, which together with the aforementioned rational reasons, co-created

the town. It gave sense to its existence and laid down a certain moral and spiritual order. This

was an essential element with regards to the founding of many cities. Janów was initially part

of the Biała village, the oldest parish in the area, created before 1325. It gained its current

name in 1653. The town is situated at the junction of two different geographical regions:

Wyżyna Lubelska (Lublin Upland) and Kotlina Sandomierska (Sandomierz Dell). This is

1 Biblioteka im. H. Łopacińskiego, Rkps 1737, nr 1. 2 Ordynacja Zamoyska (estate in tail) - one of the first ordinations of ancestral or aristocratic landownership in the Polish Republic, governing its own statutes, inherited and indivisible, founded in 1589 by Jan Sariusz Zamoyski, and abolished after World War II as a result of the state of agrarian reform. It saw the peak period of development, in the mid-19th century. The area had 373,723 hectares, was inhabited by 107,764 people and covered 9 cities: Goraj, Janów, Józefów, Kraśnik, Krzeszów, Szczebrzeszyn, Tarnogród, Tomaszów and Turobin. Its capital was Zamość with its own high school (Akademia Zamoyska) and 291 villages, 116 farms, 41 mills, eight breweries, seven distilleries, an oil mill, mangling room, nail works, sawmills, brickworks and lime kilns. It yielded approximately 1.4 min in profit, per year in gold. It constituted one of the largest private fortunes in Europe.

2

1. The apparitions of the Holy Virgin and the sacred water springs determine the character of the town and municipality of Janów. Mother of God from Janów is the patroness of the town. The photo shows the letter “M” made from twigs on the shrine of Saint Jan Nepomucen. Photo: R. Mazur-Hanaj

apparent in the urban landscape: the marshy valley of the Białka river, which flows through

Biała village and Janów, are joined with the hills of upland fault, which is also the foot of a

natural well-head called Stoki.

In Christian Poland, the founding myths of many cities and towns are narratives of

miraculous events, revelations, or using Eliade’s language: hierophanies. Sometimes these

only survived as orally transmitted stories, but usually they were sooner or later transcribed

and/or visually painted by local artists. If apparitions were recognized by the Catholic Church,

these places gained the status of official or popular shrines and became the objects of

numerous pilgrimages. The cases of miraculous healings were repeated here for many

generations and the practice of rituals, which were under the custody of the institutional

church and held by parishes and monasteries, are often, kept alive to the present day. Most of

the heroes, were common people. Peasants or craftsmen,

were mostly witnesses of the apparitions, so they were

common heroes and the Saints and the Holy Virgin were

supernatural characters. It was similar in the southern

Lublin Region, although this territory has its own local

specificity: most of it is made up of woodland, and it is

crossed diagonally from north to south by the Roztocze

hills belt which is an area void of water. The most

important revelations in this area, which occurred in

Radecznica, Krasnobród, Górecko Kościelne and Janów

Lubelski, are associated with water wells.

The Janów Revelation most probably took place in

1640. A cooper called Wojciech Boski saw the Holy

Virgin, going from the direction of Ruda village towards

the parish church for matins (early morning/evening

prayer) in Biała. The message that he allegedly received

from the Holy Virgin read: "God’s will is to celebrate his glory in memory of me at this

place.”3 This is related to another revelation, which Przegaliński cited in his book (1927),

when he mentioned a chronicle from the Dominican monastery, which doesn’t exist anymore.

According to Przegaliński, the revelation took place in 1639 and was witnessed by fishermen,

fishing in a pond one night: “[the pond], called the Black, is located between two wooded

hills, and they saw an unusual light in the forest on the southern hill, and saw the image of the

Virgin Mary surrounded by brightness on the pine tree. She was standing on the edge of the

3 Liber Miraculorum Huius Loci: chronicles from the Janów Lubelski parish, anon

3

hill at the place where the spring has its source. This miraculous event was reported to

Zamość, where the Princess Catherine of Ostrog [Zamoyska] resided. Princess Catherine,

being very pious, came to the place and ordered a church to be built at the site. The church

still stands and was given into the care of the Dominicans. They moved to the area from

Lvov. A monastery was built for them near the church. The lady said to build a shrine above

the spring, which flows from this wonderful town. The source was cased in and the well built.

The faithful take healing water from there even today.”

I would like to devote more attention to the specificity of Janów Lubelski and its

surrounding area (which makes up the municipality of Janów administratively today) as a

sacred space (determined by the water springs), later in the text. It would be pertinent to first

discuss the whole sacral map of the municipality, as it is quite diverse, and seems to be

especially rich in objects and hierophantic places.

I want to discuss the issues, character, ways of manifesting the sacrum (hierophany),

its meaning and perception very briefly. I will stop for a moment on the fundamental works of

Otto, Eliade and Caillois, not going deeply if possible, into the area of more recent reflections

on the subject, such as the works of numerous authors, especially phenomenologists of

religion and anthropologists. This modest article, which is the first commentary on the

recently undertaken field research, has no place for reflection. It is enough that it encourages

discussion and the continuation of research.

Rudolf Otto builts his classic discourse, analyzing the various forms of religious

experience, around the concept of the numinosum (1968, p. 34 et seq), as "a thing in itself."

Reaching it is rationally impossible, but one is convinced of its existence by sensus numinis.

In other words one feels its presence. It’s a feeling of power that fills a person with dread and

horror (tremens). It also attracts and enslaves (fascinans). Inconclusive as it is, it depends on

the extreme emotions that go beyond the simple order of the sacrum and the profanum.

Numinosum is a typically religious category and what is worth noting; non-moral. Otto sees

the sacrum as the religious sense of a person who is looking for communication with the

numinosum. Eliade (1996) assumes that the sacrum is religion moved into the sphere of

feelings or psychology. This perspective means that the ordinary human experience becomes

the center of attention and makes both authors the founding fathers of modern anthropology.

Caillois joins them and explicates the division of the sacred and the profane

introducing the categories ‘clean’ and ‘unclean’ which "in the world of sacrum play the same

role as the concepts of good and evil in the world of the profane. Well, a sacred world is

opposed to the profane world, among others as the world of energy - the world of substances.

From one side power, from the other side things" (1995, p. 36).

4

2. Capacity shrine at the end of the village Zofianka Górna. Photo: R. Mazur-Hanaj

Therefore, I decided to give my research an anthropological tone. In ethnographic

terms, the cultural landscape of the Polish countryside is strictly descriptive and has a rich

literature. However, it is still missing images of a variable and dynamic reality, which create a

collection of subjective image experience and an individual map of the community. As a

researcher I have created this as my personal map. Thus, I paid more attention to the places

described by my interlocutors, but I can also say, that during my personal adventure as Janów

researcher, a wanderer and a pilgrim, I simultaneously experienced "viewing of the image and

looking at the image," something that Gadamer called the Anbild (Anblick des Bildes)

(Gadamer, 1993, p. 23).

H i e r o p h a n i e s o f J a n ó w m u n i c i p a l i t y

Field research carried out by Zenon Baranowski in Janów in 2006, suggests that the

municipality has 246 small sacred objects (crosses, shrines and figures), of which there are 67

in Janów and 45 in Biała. The Janów municipality consists of the following villages: Biała,

Borownica, Kiszki, Kopce, Łążek Garncarski, Łążek Ordynacki, Momoty Dolne, Momoty

Górne, Pikule, Podlaski, Ruda, Jonaki, Szewce, Szklarnia, Ujście and Zofianka Górna. The

total area is over 178 km sq and is inhabited by 16,000 people. A detailed record of sacred

objects, made by Baranowski, is as follows:

· wooden shrines: 24 house shaped, 23

cabinet shaped, 5 box shaped, 1 recessed, 14

log recessed

· stone shrines: 20 house shaped (including

those large enough to enter), 10 metal

cabinets, 19 metal bars

· crosses: 66 wooden, 1 iron, 9 cement, 42

metal

· figures:- 11

· other: sculpture in the tree branches

These objects are, of course, officially

sacred as they are hallowed by the priest, and

always associated with religiousness, though not

necessarily in the strict theological sense. They do,

however, express the faith of the Catholic Church in its individual or social form. For

simplicity’s sake I will call them positive hierophanies, as they refer to the order founded by

5

Catholicism. This order is a base for the local community since the dawn of the city, and

earlier, in connection with the existence of the Biała parish, since the early 14th century.

However, the shrines have never been associated with the official liturgical forms. It must be

remembered that until the Second Vatican Council it was not possible to celebrate mass

outside the temple.

On the other hand, there are places (that have not yet been recorded), which are an

example of negative hierophanies and cratophanies, associated with “fear of the dead, ghosts,

of all this that is defiled” (Eliade, 1966, p. 22). These include graves, cemeteries and haunted

places. In Janów these are: a cemetery in Bialska street, a Jewish cemetery, a Russian

orthodox cemetery in Misztalec and a war grave of a soviet soldier from the Second World

War in Przyborowie.

3. Trees by the springs in Stoki – Janów Lubelski. Photo: R. Mazur-Hanaj

Revelations of holiness and power, and related places and objects, are not always

univalent. These places are usually distinguished in the cultural landscape and were

hierophanic ‘active’ before Christianization or associated with primary sacrality such as the

village of Stoki, which I will write about. Moreover a shrine which depicts borderlands, even

when associated with positive hierophany, may attract the revelation of negative forces in the

shape of a devil f.e. One must remember that the distinctions made by Caillois (1995)

between the concepts of 'clean' and 'unclean' are to a great extent, interchangeable and

ambiguous. If one thing, by definition, has a consistent nature, depending on the

circumstances in which it manifests itself, it can cause good or evil. It is not good or evil by

nature, but takes on a meaning by a focus that is attributed to it. Therefore, we cannot expect

6

that the terms 'clean' or ‘unclean' are concerned solely and invariably with some creature,

thing or condition.

The genesis of the village shrines is medieval. On the one hand it is connected with the

tradition of stone crosses of penance (areas influenced by the Czech Republic, Lower Silesia).

On the other, the so-called lanterns of the dead (usually a column with an aedicule), in the

cemeteries. It is worth mentioning that these used to be located in the center of the village, by

the temple. They were the only source of light at night, serving both the living and the souls

of deceased ancestors. Only the stone shrines have survived to the present day. The oldest are

dated from the 17th century. There is one such object in the county of Janów, the pillar shrine

of St. Martin from 1653, in the village Branewka. A wooden shrine in Biała was the oldest

shrine in the Janów municipality. It still existed in the 1960s. Ancient shrines which still exist

include St. John Nepomucen from Janów and St. Thecla and St. Vincent Ferrarius (Janów and

Kopce). They were all founded in the second half of the 18th century. At the beginning they

were erected by monasteries (Dominicans from Janów) and belonged to the nobles and the

bourgeoisie. Since the late 18th century and especially in the 19th century, they became

‘peasant’ shrines.’ At first belonging to a district then to the individual. This happened earlier

on Zamoyski estate than in many other Polish regions. This was due to the introduction of

rent for peasants and later, of course, enfranchisement.

Shrine locations:

- by holding (individual center)

· in the middle of the village (social center)

· on the edge of the road (village border)

- by the water, on the crossroads, on the border of the forest

· in the field (sometimes the residue of a belk dispute)

· in places of special events (e.g. sudden death)

Statues, crosses and shrines where founded in areas which were already regarded as

special, and thus pre-selected. These were places where the sacred revealed its clean or

unclean power. In the first case sacred places were created to use the positive power that

remained following revelations. For example; a healing spring, cases of healing itself, places

allegedly additionally indicated by the Holy Virgin (such as the church in Janów) or by St.

Anthony who rested at the Kruczek forest spring on the way to the main place of his

revelations at Roztocze on Radecznica hill. Thus the power was retained by means of human

piety and prayers, making it an object of worship for the benefit of many of the faithful. Such

places sanctioned the sacral nature of the community and were its cornerstone. In the second

case it was done to reverse an ‘evil power pole,’ as in the case of a forest tree under which the

7

Russian Tsar's Cossack raped and murdered a young girl. This reversal was accomplished by

a Christianization of the place. A shrine devoted to the Virgin Mary was erected on the spot.

It also has the tradition of a votive gesture. Even today passersby have a social obligation to

put three pine tree branches under the tree and say a prayer for the soul of the tragically

deceased. The site is also symbolic for the local community. The symbolism comes from the

identity of the murderer, placed in a political and historical context, (the year 1861: Russia's

growing repression of the Poles). The individual evil took on the characteristics of social evil,

threatening the entire local community and broader national community. The shrine is a

cultural form which I will call an ‘adapter’ or ‘connector,’ which provides a continuous flow

of charity. In the case of evil power it closes the exit.

Traditional folk culture understands space in a different way: it is discontinuous and

there is no compulsion to objectify it. It is measured by the body (e.g. an hour away, not 5

km) and depends on various factors, including the emotional state. It is subjective and

variable, making the road to it shorter or longer. All border places marking points of

discontinuity, including shrines and crosses, played an important role in the mental map of

space, which outlined the boundaries separating the order inside orbis interior from the

external unknown chaos.

4-5. The shrine on the ‘Cossack pine,’ Janów, the forest road to Kruczek. Left: three votive pine twigs, X 2010. Photo: R. Mazur-Hanaj

8

7. The sacrifice cross in Janów Woods. Photo: K. Butryn

The symbolism of the cross is obvious, but

it may be good to mention its literal meaning at

this point. It literally means the middle. The

center point of an intersection between the vertical

horizontal dimension: visible with the invisible,

human with the divine and finally death and

resurrection. One could call it the cosmic tree of

life. The most typical form taken by crosses in

Janów county is the form of an openwork cross

with a rooster. This is a symbol of life, sometimes

with a crescent moon (a sign that one is on the

frontier lands with the Eastern Orthodox Church).

The openwork cross is called krzemieński because

of the village name; Krzemień. This is where John

Pariś (1871-1950), the blacksmith master, lived.

Pariś forged some 47 crosses (Baranowski, 2007,

p. 76).

It seems that the cross has taken the place

of the earlier sacred stones and trees, which were related to the original sacredness. Their

coexistence with natural reality, reality of

another kind, was sacred in a more literal sense.

The combination of these two ways of

recognizing the importance of holy places -

crosses in rocks in Janów municipality and

shrines inside trees - was typical to the

traditional culture for a long time. According to

data recorded in Szklarnia village, there were a

lot of trees with shrines in the Janów woods

(presumably some of them were sacrificial).

They were cut down by the forestry commission

in the early 1970s and used to build a church in

Momoty Górne at behest of priest Pińciurek and

some of the villagers. A few of the trees

remained. One of them is a shrine by the

Kiszczański roadside in the forest.

6. Openwork cross with a typical rooster on the top. Near Zofianka Górna village. Photo: R. Mazur-Hanaj

9

8-9. The shrine at Kiszczański Road in Janów woods. Photo: R. Mazur-Hanaj

10

The only shrine devoted to the Holy Virgin, that was preserved, is inside an old tree in

Jonaki, south of Janów on the road to Rzeszow. This unusual lime tree can be seen from afar

(even if one goes by car) because of its extremely thick trunk and oddly branched crown. It is

not surprising that the entire shrine is in the trunk of the living tree. One can certainly say that

it is sacred, if not holy.

10-12. The shrine inside the lime tree – Jonaki. Photo: R. Mazur-Hanaj

11

Other interesting examples of the cultural landscape are places (usually of an older

origin), where the trees are boundaries of the sacred area and the shrine is the center of it. A

shrine with the statue of St. Vincent Ferrer, located in Janów by the Białka river, is a very

good example of this. The sacred architecture of the whole locus sacer consists of

• an apse shaped house, open on one side, and railed in from the outside rough.

In the middle of the shrine, painted in white with a baroque expression, is an

almost dancing wooden statue of the martyr. Behind her there is a halo of five

stars that rise up to heaven. It is symbolized by flowers. The game played by

the color contrasts, stopped in a gesture of delight (reminiscent of a Chassidic

gesture) gives a strong feeling of supernatural presence, which should after all

be the proper place for the saint

• four maple-trees surrounding the house, planted close together in the rectangle

form a sort of nave - the natural vault of different shades of green, then yellow

in autumne. Also in winter the branches intergrow giving the illusion of

closing up space. When viewed from the sides the trunk of the tree seems to be

jointed to the planks of the shrine into one piece (the photo on the next page)

• the hawthorn bush behind the house with dark red fruits (a delicacy of many

animals), as well as honey-yielding remedial white flowers; used in traditional

medicine

12

13-16. The shrine of St Vincent Ferrer in Janów Lubelski; previous page: general view of locus sacer, and hawthorn bush, In the middle: boards of the shrine and one of the four clones surrounding the house; Photo: R. Mazur-Hanaj

So, despite the fact that it is the 21st century and there are many civilizational

changes associated with the inevitable passage of time, we can still be witness to

manifestations of the supernatural, associated with primary sacredness and consciously

formed elements of the natural landscape. These are particularly trees, shrubs, flowers, water

sources. Sometimes, however, they are only remnants of former places of worship, like the

cross between two pine trees in Janów woods in Szklarnia. (photo next page)

13

17. In Janów woods . Photo: K. Butryn

The shape of the holy places, especially shrines, was doubtless influenced by the

echoes of the primary sacrality in which holiness reveals through nature and by the christian

iconography which notably formed, even subconsciously, the imagination of the faithfuls, the

iconography which they have learned for generations by participating in the official liturgy of

the church, in their own parish, but also during the pilgrimage to the regional sanctuaries.

Reading the Bible and especially the Old Testament played a great role. The theme of hortus

conclusus, or the closed garden, frequent especially in paintings of the Holy Virgin, seems to

be in many cases the archetype of the assumptions of spatial and artistic visions presented in

the shrines. This originates from the image of the bride as the garden from the Songs of the

King Salomon. An example of this can be a miniature garden with the shrine of a pensive

looking Christ located at the crossroads near Porytowe Hill.

14

18-19. Pensive Christ with the statue of the Virgin Mary in hortus conclusus, Porytowe Hill. Photo: R. Mazur-Hanaj

15

20. A shrine of glass in the center of Janów Lubelski. Photo: R. Mazur-Hanaj

Flowers, with their intense

colors, are still present in shrines. They

play a symbolic role, although

nowadays they are often artificial. In

urban space, stricty built newer shrines

are more monochromatic and

miniaturized. One of the more

interesting forms, taken by these new

shrines, is a glass box (the founders and

designers often use aquariums), whose

function is not only practical (easy to

clean, well-protected interior), but also

religious. It appeals to a slightly

different, bourgeois type of imagination,

and thus the faith is more reflective. The

glass shrines are a sort of screen that

displays a moving picture. From the

nearest street landscape one can see

buildings, cars and pedestrian traffic,

advertisements: in short; life. The world

in which one exists is the same as before the moment when one approached the shrine, only a

little bit faded and fuzzy. This is its earthly vale. The glass represents a thin and invisible

boundary between a mirage of the world's vanities, and the spiritual life from the Christian

perspective. It hints at the prospect of ultimate salvation, as witnessed by the statue of Our

Lady of Fatima positioned inside - on the o ther side as it were.

We live on the borderline. It seems that modern times are particularly marked with

boundaries. The old world abute to the new world, which is more rational and offers a new

imagination, formed by the development of new technologies. However, even today

inhabitants of Janów Lubelski, a town once known for its miraculous healings, still adheres to

tradition. The villagers still believe in miracles and the old, magical ways of staving off evil.

Barely a kilometer from the glass shrine there is another, older shrine. It is surrounded by

intense blue fabric that has been ripped off a skirt or dress. The fabric is tied in many knots.

However, it is difficult understand the intentions of the author of the knots, without knowing

him/her, and "in all of the magic-religious rites the most important is the direction of the

16

transmitted power, which stands behind every 'binder’ and all activities involving 'binding'.

This direction can be positive or negative" (Eliade, 1998, s.131).

Undoubtedly, present times that are

full of boundaries, have changed the

traditional meaning and function of a

border/boundary. Some shrines are no longer

worshipped but they still exist as monuments

of culture or history. A brick-house shaped

shrine stands in Janów in a place where the

road to Biłgoraj begins. An old wooden cross

stands beside it. Once upon a time this place

was important. The route to Biłgoraj played

an important role in communication.

According to legend, one of the Russian

Tsar’s engineers made it his aim to pave the

way to Biłgoraj in a perfectly straight line, but

the area between the cities was almost entirely

covered by the thickest forest and wetland.

The engineer almost succeeded, except in one place were the road turns a few meters. People

say that the ambitious engineer was so distressed by this that he committed suicide. Today the

road is overgrown. It does not differ much from other forest roads. It is impassable in places.

At the beginning of it, by the cross, some children hanged a bicycle tire on a tree. They throw

cones, pebbles and sticks through it. Throwing things through a wheel is one of the oldest

known agonic games

(Caillois, 1997). Games

are children's rituals and

ceremonies. They are

always held in a special

place that is separate from

the space of everyday life

and often performed with

a ‘sacred’ seriousness

(Huizinga, 1985, p. 34 et

seq).

21. Magic of the knots – Janów Lubelski. Photo: R. Mazur-Hanaj

22. Janów Lubelski - near the Roadside of Biłgoraj. Photo: R. Mazur-Hanaj

17

Another example of the way that the meaning of holy places has changed, or rather has

been modernized, is a shrine with a statue of St. Valentine the Bishop, located in Janów, near

the local cemetery. The bishop was once worshiped as the patron of severe diseases, epilepsy

and mental illness. Today St. Valentine is widely known as the patron of lovers and in Janow

his figure has two faces: the original face and the face of John Paul II, whose attitude to

illness, fortitude, humility, his miraculous deliverance, (escape from death after he was shot

by a Turkish sniper), and finally return to health and full strength, meant that the Polish Pope

is surrounded by an aura of holiness. People sing songs about him at shrines and during

pilgrimages at the May celebrations devoted to the Holy Virgin. The Pope loved Christ, and

he also loved life. He would always find a moment to meet with young people, even when he

was very tired. It is understandable

that he is regarded as the Valentine

of our time. It also shows how

much shrines still remain in the

domain of grassroots initiatives.

The Church, as an institution, has

its own procedures dictated by its

canon law and theology. It works in

a different time perspective, set by

2,000 years of history. Some

processes (e.g. canonization) run

slowly. As the faithful do not have

so much time and individual life is

short, they try to have regular

contact with the sacred. They beat

their private paths, shortcuts. "Santo

subito!" People, especially those

living in a traditional way, try to

live ‘in the womb of sanctity,’ or as

close as possible to it, because

holiness is power.

23. Saint Valentine of two faces – Janów. Photo: R. Mazur-Hanaj.

18

If sacrificial foundations relate to specific matters, sooner or later their ‘mission’ will

come to an end with the fulfillment of a request or with the death of the founder. An ordinary

cross in Ulanowska Street in Janów does not give an impression of the object of worship,

although it is more or less tidy. It turns out that it is being looked after by the person living the

closest to it. Here is his report:

“Pijanowski the miller put it here, he was a bigwig but

they [communists] took the mill away from him [after

the war under the nationalization] and then he put the

cross up to get the mill back. But he didn’t erect it on

his own property, though he had such a large plot of

land, but here [on the opposite side of the street, on no

man's land]. I moved it [one meter to the left] to

straighten the entrance to the garage. I put the beam

into the foundation [...]. I'm afraid that it may fall on

someone’s head, and its too high to make something

with it, I won’t call the fire brigade. I am already well

in years.... but I know what I’ll do, I’ll put up a metal

cross, nice and solid. The cross belongs to everybody.

Now, people are of different faiths, but the cross is for

all faiths. It isn’t anyone’s property and they gave him

that mill back, because later they were giving back a

little.”

The miller is no longer alive. He left the cross

in thanks to the fulfillment of his request and as a testimony of the effectiveness of that sacred

power.

S t o k i

At the end of this paper I wanted to give some attention to places, which I have

already written about. Places which determine the sacral character of Janów. They are the

water springs. The spring connected with the main revelations runs in the basement of the

Chapel of Appearance near the church. Numerous miraculous healings, recorded in a

chronicle from 1661, are connected with this place as is the miraculous image of ‘Our

Gracious Lady of the Rosary’ (probably from the 16th century, a gift from Jan Zamoyski),

commonly called the Mother of God from Janów. The sanctuary in Janów was occupied by

the Dominicans until 1864, when the Russian Tsar’s reversing of the monastery took place.

The cult of the Holy Virgin persisted however, and Janów is still a pilgrimage destination.

24. Miller’s cross in Ulanowska Street in Janów. Photo: R. Mazur-Hanaj

19

This topic has its own literature and written sources, and it is worth giving special attention to

it. Pilgrims travel to the Chapel of St Anthony, situated in a forest. They leave numerous

requests in the displayed notebooks in the form of inscriptions. The popularity and less formal

nature of the place, as well as its distance from the town, evoke another kind of piety. It is a

place for private and unhindered worship, which promotes contemplation. People formulate

requests in a sincere and direct way, without theologically marked formulas, although both

fascinans and tremendum are more deeply felt here. I'm going to deal with this place in more

detail in another article but here I wanted to summarize the comments made above with one

inscription from the notebook of requests to St. Anthony:

25. "Watch over my family, because I am getting weaker. Father and husband." From the notebook of requests to St. Anthony in the chapel in Kruczek. Photo: R. Mazur-Hanaj

.

A particularly interesting place for the anthropologist is Stoki, which lies less than 1 km

north from the church and sanctuary of Janów. It is a big wellhead and plays an important role

in the economic life of Janow and its inhabitants. The nearby brewery draws water from it and

not so long ago women would came here to do their laundry. People used to wash here and

sometimes took water home to wash with and for ceremonial and magic purposes: 4

“[…] Before the war the laundresses were washing there and on Good Friday they weren’t. They said that

Jesus washed his feet out there, and they take five pebbles to put them into the water. In Stoki people used

to wash themselves and bring water home in jugs, because at home someone wanted to wash.”

- Did they put those pebbles into the jug?

- “Into the jug, five, because the Lord Jesus had five wounds and they washed their eyes to make them

healthy.”

4 "On Good Friday people had a wash at home with water that was drawn before sunrise, or had a bath in the flowing water. (...) The water was drawn in silence to protect them from skin and eye diseases" [red]. Bartmiński, 1999, p. 177; "The throwing of various objects [e.g. pebbles] into the water in a vessel was used in magical practices to recognize spells and ward off diseases" ibid, p. 181.

20

26-29. Stoki in Janów Lubelski. Top left: Passion shrine made of stone, Top right: close-up of spring

Bottom: the springs gush by the foot of a slope. Photo: R. Mazur-Hanaj

21

Today Stoki looks slightly different than it did several years ago. The benches for washing

were removed, a statue of Christ stands on a high pedestal and dominates the water bed. At

the entrance to Stoki there is a cave with a wooden bas-relief, depicting the scene of the

removal of Christ from the cross (blood and water flowed from the wound in his side, in Cana

of Galilee Jesus turned water into wine, and wine is his blood). There are springs which gush

with varied strength in two places at the foot of the slope. Sometimes water flows directly

from the ground, or from rocks or from under the roots of trees, and creates a small

picturesque pool. Stones of various sizes shimmer in the crystal water, particles of sand run

rapidly in the fast current and intensely green grass waves. "Clean water, particularly near the

wood and stone, marks the center of the space. It is a sign of the place’s sacredness" (red.

Bartmiński, 1999, p. 187).

This unusual place is related to the mystery of life, death and with regards to

Christianity; the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Moreover, according to folk tradition, its

primary sacredness lies in the potentiality of connecting the water with death and rebirth.

Living water, which flows inside the mountain, is in opposition with the stone, the same as

life with death (red. Bartmiński, 1999, p. 237). The water washes away sin. Ritual washing

returns one to the moment beyond the limits of time (in illo tempore), of the world. It leads to

the birth of a “new man” (Eliade, 1998, p. 177 et seq). The element of water - the prima

materia - which God, the Father, created the world with, gushes from the womb of the earth

and symbolizes the Mother of God, who took Christ from the water of life (Lurker, 1989, p.

283-4).

Let’s remember, however, that the numinous, as a thing ‘in itself,’ is an non-moral

potentiality. When manifested as the sacred (at the moment of entry into a relationship with

the disposition), the religious sense of man splits into ambivalent forces, into the ‘clean’ and

‘unclean.’ In particular, it seems to relate to aquatic hierophanies, because water disintegrates

and destroys the form. It is no wonder that one could meet the devil at Stoki:

“Even my father told me: my father's parents were rich and supposedly everyone wanted them to attend

their wedding [...], so they were walking late at night near a brewery here [at Stoki] […]. They were

singing, suddenly someone came and said: “Why are you going and singing like cattle?” Then this

person said: “Maybe you are blind […] maybe you are dark? I’ll light you the way,” and he gave them a

candle. And they made it home with that candle, and it was a horse's hoof.”

During my visit to Stoki, when I had seen the wellhead, from some innate curiosity I

directed my steps to the top of the slope. The path that leads there starts at the back of the

stone shrine of Calvary, and ends after 10m by a part concrete and patched wall. Behind the

wall is the neglected rear of the brewery. It is an amorphous space, like it has not been used

22

for a long time. The warehouse has open, rusty doors. The rear wall of the magazine, made of

white brick, leads to Stoki. At first glance, the area along the wall, behind which the slope

drops steeply towards the water springs, gives the impression of a well hidden inlet, but soon

it turns out that it is something more. The place is marked with huge graffiti and the well-

known in Poland acronym, a vulgar phrase:

“HWDP” (bugger the police) or “scoffy” (glory to

you brave policemen). The entire white wall is

covered with various types of inscriptions, usually

dates, initials, names or nicknames. The wall with

inscriptions begins and ends with the image of the

phallus. This is a meeting place for teenagers.

They drink beer here, or wine, and talk freely, or

simply spend some time together without the

presence of adults. This is practically impossible at home, at school, in the culture center or in

the closed urban space that is their town. The following inscriptions testify to this: "Mary was

at wag here,” “we got fucked up”, “Caroline=*”

People enter adulthood between the ages of 14-18. This is the time between childhood

and adult life. In traditional communities marriage was the closing of this stage. In some

measure the same is true today, but nowadays an increasingly important role is played by

other turning points, e.g. setting up a business. The threshold of adulthood was once outlined

and sharp. Today it is dislocated in time.

Throughout one’s whole life this period is

specifically characterized by liminality, a period of

initiation, which was the subject of rituality in

traditional communities with strong

communalities. According to Turner, who

followed in van Gennep’s footsteps, one can

venture an opinion that Stoki is also a place of

temporary or situational communitas. Communitas

is a kind of social anti-structure that forms in the

liminal period, in the stage of transition or suspension, when a change of status or social

position takes place. It is difficult to find a phrase that is more terse and questions the social

order more than HWDP. The main point of reference, for the participant of a communitas, is a

group. In this case, the group refers to people of the same age. The boundaries of this world

are delimited by the pictogram of a phallus. As Jung writes (1993, p. 140), the group

30. Beer, the stupefying drink.. Photo: R. Mazur-Hanaj

31. A nickname of an “animalistic soul”: “Wild Snout” Photo: R. Mazur-Hanaj

23

experience is made at a lower level of consciousness than the level of individual experience,

some sort of ‘animalistic soul’ is sometimes created. Reducing emotions into the realm of sex

is antisocial but fits well into this anti-structure. Human beings always had a tendency to form

groups, which enabled the collective experience of a transformation. This often took the form

of a daze (Jung, 1993, p. 141).

According to the inscriptions on the wall, and my interviews, the hill in Stoki is quite

an egalitarian place (brotherhood is one of the determinants of communitas), visited by very

different young people, including football fans, punks and rebels. It also, however, has

ordinary, non distinguishable representatives and future intellectuals. On the wall one can

read an inscription from the local high school, or the words "Kult is the best.” 5 One section of

the wall is also reserved for a Christian message, referring to a basic Christian imperative –

love - which is so important for teenagers and one of the basic symbols for today’s Christian-

oriented youth. It contains a pictogram of a fish with a cross and the slogan, which at this

point is particularly resonant: “Swim against the tide.”

5 “Kult” is the name of a very interesting Polish musical group, performing songs which border between alternative rock and the pop scene. Its charismatic leader Kazik Staszewski, the son of an emigrant bard, writes smart critical articles on various manifestations of Polish reality.

32. Christian inscriptions on the wall about love and “swim against the tide”. Photo: R. Mazur-Hanaj

24

Significantly for inscriptions that talk about feelings and confessions of love, the trees

growing near the wall are reserved for the names of loved ones, which are carved with a knife.

The most obvious formula, which testifies one’s presence at a specific location is simple, "I

was here." This can be read on the wall, while trees: ‘living boards,’ remain the most

appropriate place for the word love, expressing a sense of human presence on earth.

To recapitulate, one can say that Stoki has its own mana. The sacral landscape of the

Janów municipality is filled with many hierophanic places. Its historical variability is

dynamic and interesting and Stoki is among the most important and central places, because of

its apparent connection with primary sacrality and its popular, informal and not fully

institutionalized character. One can find this ambivalence of the sacrum, which Caillois gave

so much attention to. “Any power of embodying the sacred tends to split up: its original

ambiguity divides into antagonistic and complementary elements, for which a person feels

appropriately; esteem and repugnance, desire and fear” (Caillois, 1995, p. 39). Stoki is a place

that is both clean and unclean. It is place of holiness and slur, which brakes open the anti-

structural taboos. Even though it is itself broken, according to important contemporary

processes of cultural and social transformation, the factor of sacral sensibility still plays an

important role here.

33. Declarations of love are curved on the trees, not on the wall. Photo: R. Mazur-Hanaj

25

Bibliography:

Baranowski Łukasz Zenon, 2007, Figury, krzyże i kapliczki przydrożne w powiecie janowskim [in] „Janowskie korzenie” nr 5

[red.] Bartmiński Jerzy, 1999, Słownik streotypów i symboli ludowych, tom I, Lublin

Caillois Roger, 1995, Człowiek i sacrum, Warsaw

Caillois Roger, 1997, Gry i ludzie, Warsaw

Eliade Mircea, 1966, Traktat o historii religii, Warsaw

Eliade Mircea, 1996, Sacrum i profanum: o istocie religijności, Warsaw

Eliade Mircea, 1998, Obrazy i symbole, Warsaw

Gadamer Hans Georg, 1993, Aktualność piękna, Warsaw

van Gennep Arnold, 2006, Obrzędy przejścia, Warsaw

Huizinga Johan, 1985, Homo ludens, Warsaw

Jung Carl Gustav, 1993, Archetypy i symbole, Warsaw

Lurker Manfred, 1989, Słownik obrazów i symboli biblijnych, Poznań

Łukasiewicz Józef, 2002, Drogowskazy wiary: kapliczki i krzyże Ziemi Janowskiej, Sandomierz

Łukasiewicz Józef, 2010, Janowskie legendy [in] „Janowskie korzenie” nr 15

Orzeł Stefan, 2000, Dominikanie w Janowie Lubelskim w latach 1660-1864 [w] red. Baranowski Zenon, Nazarewicz Barbara, Łukasiewicz Józef, Janów Lubelski 1640-2000, Janów Lubelski

Otto Rudolf, 1968, Świętość, Warsaw

Rożek Helena, 2000, Powstanie Janowa Lubelskiego i jego rozwój w okresie staropolskim [in] red. Baranowski Zenon, Nazarewicz Barbara, Łukasiewicz Józef, Janów Lubelski 1640-2000, Janów Lubelski

Turner Victor, 2005, Gry społeczne, pola i metafory, Cracow

Turner Victor, 2010, Proces rytualny, Warsaw