For the third time, a radiant walking pilgrimage, dedicated to youth and priestly and religious vocations, took place at the Sanctuary of Our Lady in Tuchów, near Tarnów. On July 5-6, 2025, 1,300 pilgrims from the Sądecczyzna, Limanowa, Brzesko, Bochnia, Mielec, and Jasło regions arrived for the week-long Great Tuchów Indulgence.
The pilgrimage for the sake of youth and vocations – a joint initiative of the Redemptorists and the Tarnów Diocese – grows year by year, gaining new participants and a place in the religious life of Małopolska.
The groups set off in the morning of Saturday, July 5, gathering people of all ages, worshippers of Our Lady of Tuchów, to pray for new vocations along the way and then in the sanctuary. The faithful were met with great kindness and a warm welcome along the way, reciprocating with fervent prayer for the intentions recommended by the hosts and those receiving before the throne of the Patroness of the Tarnów Diocese in Tuchów.
On Sunday, July 6, the Holy Mass for all pilgrims, arriving in organized groups and individually, was led by Bishop Andrzej j. Jeż, Ordinary of the Tarnów Diocese. He emphasized the importance of prayer and vocation, as well as the spiritual hunger of modern man: “People want to meet with a priest to seek God and save their souls.”
Why this prayer especially in Tuchów? On October 2, 1904, Archbishop Leon Wałęga, then the ordinary of Tarnów, during the coronation of the image of Our Lady of Tuchów, in view of the dramatic lack of vocations in the diocese, at the foot of the altar placed the insignia of episcopal authority (mitre and crozier) and said: On this memorable day, I entrusted myself and all of you to the care of Our Lady of Tuchów, I chose Her as the Queen of the entire diocese, and all present made an eternity vow to Her.
In fervent prayer he implored Mary for numerous and holy priestly and religious vocations. The prayer resulted in a great number of new vocations in the hearts of the young people of this diocese, and Mother Tuchowska received the title of Educator of priestly and religious vocations. The loud echo of this entrustment caused that clerics from various diocesan and religious seminaries, many congregations of nuns, make pilgrimages to this place to ask for new vocations. Bishop András Veres from the diocese of Győr, president of the Hungarian Episcopal Conference, also loved Tuchów and has been making pilgrimages for many years.
Redemptorists have been working in Tuchów since 1893. The initiators and moderators of the pilgrimage, as well as the “Vigils for Vocations” held in Tuchów every second Saturday of the month, are the youth and vocation pastors of the Warsaw Province of Redemptorists. This year, the “5th Redemptorist Bicycle Pilgrimage to Jasna Góra and Tuchów” was held with a similar intention and left from Toruń. More information and the plan of the radiant pilgrimage to Tuchów on the website: pptuchow.diecezjatarnow.pl .
Fr. Szczepan Hebda CSsR, Redemptorist Vocation Ministry Center in Tuchów
photo: pilgrimage archive
(Source: redemptor.pl/)
