In 1987, about eight years after he came to the United States from Poland, Marek Predki and six other people decided to bring a Polish tradition to their new country by embarking on a pilgrimage from Chicago to Northwest Indiana.
They were upholding a deeply Catholic tradition in Poland: Where people from across the country walk from their villages, towns and cities to visit the Black Madonna of Czestochowa in Czestochowa, Poland, said Predki’s daughter Evita Szklarz, of Tinley Park.
Depending on where people start walking from, Szklarz said the pilgrimages in Poland can last from a few days to a few weeks. The goal, she said, is to make it to Czestochowa by Aug. 15, which is the Assumption of the Virgin Mary in the Catholic Church.
Polish faithful carry a portrait of Jesus and spin blue and yellow bandanas above their heads as they near the end of their pilgrimage from Chicago to Our Lady of Czestochowa in Merrillville on Sunday, August 14, 2022. (Kyle Telechan for the Post-Tribune)
Thousands of Polish people will walk 30 miles this Saturday and Sunday from Immaculate Conception St. Michael Catholic Church in Chicago to the Our Lady of Czestochowa Shrine in Merrillville, building on the tradition Predki started nearly 40 years ago. Some of the walkers will camp Saturday night at the Carmelite Fathers in Munster.
“The most important thing we can pass on to our children is our faith as well as our Polish traditions,” Szklarz said. “This being a mix of both, it’s just so important to us. Bringing in those beautiful traditions of going on pilgrimage every year to the shrine of Our Lady, it’s truly something very special.”
The year before he came to America, Szklarz said her father walked the pilgrimage in Poland and it took him about 10 days from his village in southern Poland. After being in America for a few years, Szklarz said her father and a small group of people wanted to recreate the pilgrimage.
That first year, in 1987, Szklarz said her father and six other people — Lech Kubera, Zbigniew Dominik, Stanislaw Meronowicz, Kazimierz Cyrkief, Jozef Bizub and Urszula Kolbe — walked from St. Bruno’s Catholic Church near 47th Street and Pulaski in Chicago to the Carmelite Fathers in Munster within one day. That first year’s group included six men and one woman, who was blind, and they pushed her in a wheelchair, she said.
By the second year, more than 100 people walked the pilgrimage, she said, and they added the second day to walk to the Our Lady of Czestochowa Shrine in Merrillville. Now, the pilgrimage includes thousands of people from Chicago and the surrounding suburban communities in Illinois and Indiana, she said.
Over the years, the pilgrimage has grown to include priests leading the group in prayer, people speaking over microphones to share their religious stories, police escorts helping with traffic and the option of camping Saturday night at the Carmelite Fathers in Munster, Szklarz said.
Thousands of walkers approach the end of their journey on Sunday as the walk under the Polish and American flags during the Polish Pilgrimage from Chicago to the Our Lady of Czestochowa Shrine in Merrillville on August 8, 2021. (John Smierciak/ for the Post-Tribune)
The pilgrimage includes mass Saturday morning and night as well as Sunday afternoon when the group makes it to Our Lady of Czestochowa Shrine in Merrillville. It’s also common for those walking the pilgrimage to offer intentions and prayers, like Szklarz said she asks for blessings for her family.
Anna Prusko, 42, of St. John, said she walked her first pilgrimage in 2005 with her older sister and her niece. The weather that year was horrible, she said, because it rained on them a lot.
At the second stop, Prusko said she tried to get on a bus the pilgrimage organized to help the walkers, but there wasn’t room for her. So, she kept walking toward Munster, Prusko said.
“I kept going. It was so difficult. When I got to Munster, I was crying, just so happy and grateful, that I was able to do this,” Prusko said.
The second day in 2005, Prusko said her mother and other nieces joined the pilgrimage. The second day felt easier compared to the first, Prusko recalled.
“I was just very happy to be there,” Prusko said. “It was a blessing, a beautiful experience.”
Prusko said she’s walked the pilgrimage 10 times, each year with different family members and friends. Some years she’s walked with friends, and she’s walked the pilgrimage with her husband before and after their marriage.
This year, Prusko said she’s going to the pilgrimage by herself, but she knows she’ll make friends with people along the way. Prusko said members of her family will meet her at the Our Lady of Czestochowa Shrine in Merrillville Sunday, which is always a special moment.
“When you walk, it’s the whole enjoyment of just being there and walking in the pilgrimage,” Prusko said. “The first year was so difficult. I was like just crying and just like ‘I’m never doing this again, this is crazy.’ I’ve been doing it so many years. There has to be something powerful there.”
Dorota Allen, of Hobart, said she will walk this year’s pilgrimage on Sunday from Munster to Merrillville. The experience is moving as people pray and sing songs together, she said.
Allen said she has gone on the pilgrimage five times, and she always goes by herself. But, along the walk, she always finds people to talk to, she said.
“The atmosphere is so overwhelming. Your heart is so happy and full,” Allen said.
Szklarz, who is now 36, said she has memories of walking the pilgrimage throughout her childhood. Her first time going on the pilgrimage was when she was around 9 years old, she said.
“There was something that felt very special about being there, surrounded by all those people. Walking the pilgrimage feels like you’re just part of one big family. Even though it’s physically very exhausting, there’s so much joy in it still. It just feels like you’re part of something bigger,” Szklarz said.
Now, she participates in the pilgrimage with her husband and four children, she said. What she enjoys most about the pilgrimages is watching her children have the same experience she did as a child.
“They have really special memories. They see all their grandparents taking part in it. They see their parents taking part in it,” Szklarz said. “It’s part of their summer every year.”
Her father still walks the pilgrimage as well, and some years he’s up front carrying a cross, she said. Her father takes turns with Lech Kubera, one of the people from the 1987 pilgrimage, carrying the cross, she said.
“He’s so proud of it and so happy that it continues,” Szklarz said. “We have so much support from every town that we go through.”
