PĘPOWO, GM. PĘPOWO, POW. GOSTYŃSKI
A stone in the current of the Dobrocznia stream, now completely silted up and invisible. During the course of a field search, we were able to confirm its existence. The stone is to be reinterred. In the nearby St. Hedwig Church in Pêpowo there is a representation of this saint crossing the stream and leaving a mark on the stone.
The temple was erected in the 2nd half of the 15th century, and later rebuilt in 1610-1625. The Friend of the People of 1846 recalls the following legend about the stone, noted among the local population: "In those days, when neither the village nor the church yet existed, only wilderness grew in those places, Saint Jadwiga, who lived in Trzebnica at that time, went on a pilgrimage on foot to the tomb of Saint Adalbert in Gniezno; having gone into those wildernesses, weary, she rested on a hill by the river and looked for a place where she could cross the water. When she saw a stone lying in the stream, she stepped on it and happily made it to the other side. The shepherds in the woods, who were watching the pilgrimage crossing the stream, soon noticed her foot imprinted on the stone after she left, and when word spread, people gathered from all over to watch the miracle; In the course of time the village started to build by the stream, which is now called Dobrocznia and has been flowing near Pêpowo, and later a church was built on the hill, where the humble Duchess used to rest. It is said that the stone with her foot imprinted on it still lies on a streambed by the same river".
Sources of information: Friend of the People 1846, 22; Baruch 1907, 48; Maluskiewicz 2008; field queries
Geographic coordinates: 51.760248, 17.125097
