Vasa Sacra in the Museum’s collection

The collection compromises, among others, a chalice, patens, cruets, an aspergillum, elements of an embroidered altar cloth, and a hand-engraved cross reliquary. Its purchase was possible owing to financial support received from the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.

The whole collection was a priest travel kit belonging to the Rev. Capt. Mieczysław Stasz, chaplain of the 4th Warsaw Regiment of Foot Rifles, who together with other soldiers of this formation was interned in Switzerland in 1940-1945. On one of the vessels - a paten intended for the consecration of the Host, a commemorative inscription is engraved: 4 W.P.S.P. / NA INTERNOWANIU / KAPELANOWI Z CHURU /1.1.43 DOKTÓR Z ILANZ.

In the both above mentioned towns – Chur and Ilanz – were located internment camps for Polish soldiers. We do not know it yet who ,,doctor z Ilanz” [,,the doctor from Ilanz”] was, but we have managed to trace the fate of ,,kapelana z Churu” [,,the chaplain from Chur”], who was the Rev. Capt. Mieczysław Stasz. So, he was born in 1905 in Radom. He graduated from the seminary in Sandomierz and was ordained a priest there in 1934. Five years later he was appointed a military chaplain of the Polish Army Reserve and later the chaplain of the Military Hospital in Radom. In September 1939, together with evacuated soldiers, he crossed the border with Romania and was interned there. Then he managed to get to France, where he was appointed the chaplain of the 4th Warsaw Regiment of Foot Rifles. In June 1940, after the lost fight, his unit was interned in Switzerland. Father Mieczysław Stasz was sent to the camp in Chur. Not only did he provided pastoral care there, but he also collected donations to buy tombstones for the deceased soldiers of the 2nd Infantry Rifle Division who had died in Switzerland, organized material aid for civilians and prisoners-of-war, and participated in the search for missing Polish Army soldiers. In 1946, together with other soldiers, he went to Great Britain where he served as a chaplain at the Polish resettlement camp at Doddington. In the 1950s, he continued his priestly ministry at the Polish Catholic Mission in England. In 1956 in Harlow, for example, he created the first parish structures of the Polish community and became parish priest in Ipswich. He died in 1961. For his activity during the war, he was awarded the Cross of Valour and the Croix de Guerre (Cross of War).

The liturgical implements are the first of its kind in the Museum's collection. We wish to express our gratitude to the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.

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