According to the legend, a miraculous crucifix from Pacanów was one of the three which were floating down the Vistula River. One of them stopped in Mogiła, near Cracow, where today there is a sanctuary. The second one was fished out from the water in Warsaw, where it has become an object of cult. The third one stopped in Pacanów, where it has been famous for its graces.

A settlement visited by the royals
Pacanów has long and rich tradition, its history dates back as far as beginnings of the Polish state. For centuries it had been a property of many prominent dynasties, therefore, Polish kings paid special attention to the place and granted it numerous privileges. Since the 13th C. there has been a parish with a church under the call of St. Martin of Tours in here. The temple has been several times destroyed by fires and rebuilt, yet even today there are still some wall fragments of the early-Gothic building. In the 17th C. two chapels were added to the structure - a chapel of St. Anne, with a baptismal font made of brown marble, in 1610 was and another, known as the Chapel of the Dying Jesus, in 1634. The crucifix placed inside the latter has been an object of cult since the 15th C.

The worshipped, miraculous crucifix

The miraculous crucifix
Most probably, the 2-metre cross of the Dying Jesus in Pacanów comes from the 17th C. as, at that time, the artists used not to depict a crown of thorns round the Jesus’ head. Initially, the relic had been placed in a wooden chapel near the parish hospital, later it was transferred to a chapel by St. Martin’s Church, built especially for this purpose. It survived two fires, in 1906 and1944, and even though during those accidents the whole church was burnt, the wooden altar bear only small marks left by the fire. The crucifix has become famous for its graces, which can be deduced from the number of votives and 17th-century source texts. Every morning, before the mass service, the cross is exposed and in the evening it is screen off by a picture of the repentant Mary Magdalene, kneeling at the foot of the cross.

The pilgrims’ destination
For many years Pacanów has been a pilgrimage destination. It is also a special place for the Polonia (the Polish diaspora) from all around the world. The pilgrims leave here their votives, which usually have a shape of heart, palm or foot, but there are also crosses, chaplets, senator stars, medals and other decorations. Every year, the Sanctuary of the Dying Jesus is also a place for one of the biggest church fairs in the Kielce Diocese, accompanied by a parish harvest festival. Pilgrims from the nearby Czyżów, Stopnica, Solec Zdrój, as well as the guests from abroad, i.e. the USA, Austria or Germany, come in crowds for these events. Apart from the festivals, the Way of the Cross is being performed in the sanctuary every Friday, special attention is also paid to the Exaltation of the Cross Day. Presently, St. Martin’s Church tries to obtain the rank of a minor basilica.

Pacanów is not only the place where they shoe goats, every year thousands of pilgrims come here for religious reasons.