Our Lady of Gietrzwald

During the summer of 1877, two thirteen-year-old girls — Justyna Szafrańska and Barbara Samulowska — reported a series of apparitions of the Virgin Mary in Gietrzwald, in the Warmia region of Poland, then under Prussian administration. The apparitions began on June 27 and continued through September, with the Virgin consistently asking the children to pray the rosary. Her speaking in Polish carried particular significance: Prussian authorities had been suppressing the Polish language in schools and public life. Multiple healings were reported at the spring that appeared at the site. Bishop Filip Krementz of Warmia conducted an investigation and approved the apparitions in 1877 — the same year they began — making it one of the most rapidly approved cases in Church history. Gietrzwald remains the only Vatican-recognized Marian apparition site on Polish territory.