Shrines of Poland with Fr. Rafal Ligenza
Ten days from Poznań and Gniezno to Warsaw, Częstochowa and Kraków, in the footsteps of St. Adalbert, St. Maximilian Kolbe, St. Faustina and St. John Paul II, with Mass every day.
Your chaplain
Fr. Rafal Ligenza
Pastor, St. Joseph Catholic Church, Bradenton, Florida
“Jesus, I trust in You.”
The words beneath the image of the Merciful Jesus
We pray before the image of the Merciful Jesus at the Divine Mercy Shrine in Kraków Łagiewniki, where St. John Paul II entrusted the world to Divine Mercy in 2002.
Wawel Castle and Cathedral · Kraków
Poland, September 14 to 23, 2027
Ten days, eight nights in Poznań, Warsaw and Kraków, with Gniezno, Niepokalanów, Częstochowa, Wadowice, Wieliczka, Auschwitz-Birkenau and Zakopane along the way, and Mass each day.
Begins in Poznań and ends in Kraków
OvernightVisit
Nights: 1 Poznań, 2 Warsaw, 5 Kraków.
Departure
Our pilgrimage begins as we depart the United States on our overnight flight to Poznań, Poland. Dinner and breakfast will be served during the flight.
Arrival in Poznań
Upon arrival at Poznań Ławica Airport, our local professional tour escort will greet us and accompany us by motorcoach to our hotel. After check-in, we gather this evening for a welcome dinner to begin our pilgrimage together.
Poznań, Gniezno & Warsaw
We begin in Poznań, where tradition holds that Mieszko I received baptism in 966, the event Poles call the Baptism of Poland. At the Cathedral of Sts. Peter and Paul, the oldest cathedral in the country, we pray in the Golden Chapel before the tombs of Mieszko I and his son Bolesław, Poland’s first king. We continue to Gniezno, the first capital of Poland and the cradle of its Christian faith. At the Primatial Cathedral we kneel before the silver reliquary of St. Adalbert, the Bishop of Prague martyred in 997 while preaching the Gospel to the Prussians, whose body Prince Bolesław the Brave ransomed and brought here. We admire the twelfth-century bronze Gniezno Doors and celebrate Mass in the cathedral, entrusting our pilgrimage to the intercession of Poland’s first patron. In the afternoon we travel east to Warsaw for check-in.
Niepokalanów & Warsaw
After breakfast we travel to Niepokalanów, the City of the Immaculate Mother of God, founded by St. Maximilian Kolbe in 1927 as a Franciscan friary and publishing house consecrated entirely to Our Lady. From here St. Maximilian was taken by the Gestapo in 1941. We celebrate Mass at the Basilica of the Immaculate Mother of God, Mediatrix of All Graces, and visit the chapel and the simple rooms where he lived and worked. Returning to Warsaw, a city rebuilt stone by stone after its near total destruction in the Second World War, we pray at the convent of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy on Żytnia Street, where St. Faustina Kowalska entered religious life in 1925, and walk through the Old Town, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, to Castle Square. In St. John’s Archcathedral we pray at the tomb of Blessed Stefan Wyszyński, the Primate of the Millennium, and at the Church of St. Stanislaus Kostka we pray at the tomb of Blessed Jerzy Popiełuszko, the Solidarity chaplain martyred in 1984.
Częstochowa & Kraków
After breakfast we travel south to Częstochowa, Poland’s most important Marian shrine since the fourteenth century, and celebrate Mass in the Chapel of the Black Madonna at Jasna Góra Monastery, home to the revered Icon of Our Lady of Częstochowa, which tradition holds was painted by St. Luke the Evangelist. Under her gaze the Polish nation has turned to Mary as its Queen for centuries, and St. John Paul II was known to make frequent visits to the monastery throughout his life. We then continue to Kraków for our stay.
Wadowice & Wieliczka Salt Mine
This morning we travel to Wadowice, birthplace of Karol Józef Wojtyła, the future St. John Paul II, and celebrate Mass at the Basilica of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, his family’s parish church, where he was baptized. We visit his family home, now a museum dedicated to his life, and pray for the grace to follow his example of holiness. In the afternoon we visit the Wieliczka Salt Mine, worked since the thirteenth century and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, descending to its underground chapels carved entirely from salt. The highlight is the Chapel of St. Kinga, patroness of the salt miners, which holds a statue of St. John Paul II, who canonized her in 1999.
Auschwitz-Birkenau & Harmęże
Today we visit Auschwitz-Birkenau, the former Nazi German concentration and extermination camp, with a guide of the Memorial, to solemnly remember the victims of the Second World War. We pause in prayer at the starvation cell of St. Maximilian Kolbe, the Franciscan friar who offered his life in exchange for that of a fellow prisoner, a husband and father, and who died here on August 14, 1941, and at Birkenau we pray for the more than one million men, women and children who were murdered there. We continue to nearby Harmęże to visit the Church of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception and the St. Maximilian Kolbe Centre, established by the Franciscan friars to commemorate his life and martyrdom, and celebrate Mass at the friary here.
Zakopane
Today we journey into the Tatra Mountains to Zakopane, where a young Karol Wojtyła hiked and skied, and where as a priest and bishop he continued to bring young people into the mountains he loved. We celebrate Mass at the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Fatima in Krzeptówki, built by the local highlanders as a votive offering of thanksgiving after Our Lady preserved the life of St. John Paul II in the assassination attempt of May 13, 1981, the anniversary of the first Fatima apparition; he personally consecrated the church on June 7, 1997. The afternoon is free to stroll Krupówki Street, with its wooden highland architecture, shops and cafés, before we return to Kraków.
Divine Mercy Shrine & Kraków
This morning is dedicated to the Shrine of Divine Mercy in Kraków Łagiewniki, the world center of the Divine Mercy devotion, where Christ shared His message of mercy with the world through St. Faustina Kowalska. We pray before the miraculous image of the Merciful Jesus painted by Adolf Hyła and at the tomb of St. Faustina, and celebrate Mass here, where St. John Paul II consecrated the world to Divine Mercy in 2002. In the afternoon we tour Kraków, ascending Wawel Hill to the Royal Cathedral, burial place of Poland’s kings and saints, where Karol Wojtyła celebrated his first Mass in the crypt of St. Leonard in 1946, then walking to the Main Market Square and St. Mary’s Basilica. This evening we gather for a farewell dinner in thanksgiving for the graces of our pilgrimage.
Kraków, return home
With hearts renewed by the mercy of Christ and the intercession of Our Lady of Częstochowa, St. Adalbert, St. Maximilian Kolbe, St. Faustina and St. John Paul II, we transfer early this morning, with a boxed breakfast, to Kraków John Paul II International Airport for our return flight home.
What’s included
Everything below is covered by the package price.
Your hotels in Poland
Four-star hotels throughout: one night in Poznań, two in Warsaw and five in Kraków. We will confirm the hotels before departure.
“The entire trip from start to finish went smoothly.”
“Each one has been beautifully arranged and managed from start to finish.”
“This was the trip of a lifetime and excellent customer service.”
Price per person
Per person, including roundtrip group airfare from Tampa (TPA). Flying from another city? You can request an airfare quote from your airport when you reserve.
$200 per person is non-refundable.
Final payment is due 90 days before departure and is non-refundable. Payment plans are available if you would like to make smaller payments before then.
Check
ACH bank transfer
Zelle
Cash, money order or cashier’s check
Protect your pilgrimage
Your pilgrimage is paid for long before you leave. Travel insurance is added as part of your booking: when you reserve, choose an Allianz plan on the insurance step. There is no separate quote to get. Classic is the plan we recommend for most pilgrims.
- Covers your trip cost. Classic reimburses 100% of the trip cost you insured if you cancel for a covered reason, and adds emergency medical care and baggage cover.
- Buy within 14 days of your first deposit to keep Cancel Anytime and pre-existing condition cover. The plans stay available until departure.
- Buy it in the same checkout as your pilgrimage. Prefer to add it by phone? Call us at +1 (800) 653-0017.
Frequently asked questions
It is a touring pilgrimage by motorcoach, not a walking one. Expect about 2 to 3 miles of walking on a typical day. The Old Towns of Warsaw and Kraków and Wawel Hill are on foot over cobblestones, Auschwitz-Birkenau is a long visit on foot, and the Wieliczka Salt Mine has many stairs underground.
You can have a room to yourself, with a single room supplement of $649, or share a room with two beds with another pilgrim. If you would like to share, we will do our best to match you with a roommate; if we cannot find a match by the final payment date, June 16, 2027, the single room supplement applies. Couples, families, friends and singles are all welcome, and plenty of pilgrims come on their own.
Lunches, drinks beyond those served with meals, donations at Masses, souvenirs and laundry. Tips for your tour manager, local guides and driver: if you are satisfied with their service, it is customary to tip. Travel insurance if you choose it, and the 3% credit card processing fee unless you pay by check, ACH or Zelle. A typical lunch costs about $15 to $20. Abroad, we recommend paying for most things by credit card, which is accepted almost everywhere and comes with protection that cash does not; bring a couple hundred US dollars in cash for emergencies. When a card machine or ATM asks whether to pay in dollars or in the local currency (Polish złoty), choose the local currency; it is almost always cheaper.
Yes. Cancel in writing. Up to June 16, 2027, everything you have paid is returned except $200 per person. The final payment, due June 16, 2027, is non-refundable, so after that date nothing paid is returned. Travel insurance may cover a cancellation, depending on the reason.
Fr. Rafal Ligenza, pastor of St. Joseph Catholic Church in Bradenton, Florida, leads the pilgrimage and celebrates Mass each day, with parishioners, family and friends. Anyone is welcome to join.
Yes. Fr. Ligenza celebrates Mass on each full day in Poland: at the cathedral in Gniezno, the basilica at Niepokalanów, Jasna Góra, the basilica in Wadowice, the Franciscan friary at Harmęże, the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Fatima in Krzeptówki and the Divine Mercy Shrine.
Yes. Choose “Book my own” on the flights step when you reserve: the same pilgrimage, September 14 to 23, 2027, for $3,596 per person, two sharing. Send us your flight details once booked, so we can line your arrival up with the group’s. Group air from other airports can be arranged; you can request an airfare quote from your airport when you reserve.
Three times: one night in Poznań, two in Warsaw and five in Kraków, all four-star hotels.
A U.S. passport valid at least 3 months beyond the return date and issued within the last 10 years. If the European Union’s ETIAS travel authorization is in force by departure, each pilgrim applies for it online before travel.
June 16, 2027, 90 days before departure. The final payment is non-refundable.
You get access to the Pilgrim Portal, with your itinerary, payments and messages to our team. A travel kit with your final information letter, the Magnificat and your name and luggage tags arrives by mail about 30 days before departure.
We strongly encourage travel insurance for all of our pilgrims, and we partner with Allianz Travel Insurance to offer affordable coverage. Most of our pilgrims choose the Classic Plan. You add it as part of your booking: choose a plan on the insurance step when you reserve, or call us at +1 (800) 653-0017. Buy within 14 days of your first deposit to keep Cancel Anytime and pre-existing condition cover.
A pilgrimage is not a vacation or excursion but a unique spiritual journey that provides many opportunities to deepen your relationship with God and enrich your Catholic faith by bringing Scripture to life. Pilgrimages offer the opportunity to let Christ draw you near.
More questions are answered in our Support Center, covering booking, payments, travel insurance, passports and what to expect on pilgrimage.
Shrines of Poland with Fr. Rafal Ligenza
September 14 to 23, 2027, with Fr. Rafal Ligenza. Reserve today with a $450 deposit per pilgrim.
Questions? Call +1 (800) 653-0017 or email hello@canterburypilgrimages.com.
Secure your spot today with a $450 deposit per pilgrim.