According to information from 1881, in a field called "Godow" (previously a wooded area), between the villages of Sadowie, Najdziszów and Nowa Wieś, there was to be a stone with "an embossed human foot." It was a large, oval red sandstone. According to local tradition, the footprint was left by the devil, who stood on the boulder. The site was considered haunted. In turn, whoever would put his foot on the marks on the stone would be torn off.
Stefan Damalevich, in his Life of St. Bogumił published in 1714. (p. 288; after Sokolowski 1748, 110) gives information about a stone with the imprint of St. Andrew's foot, located "about eight miles from Krakow." The stone was said to be located in a cemetery, on the site of the former hermitage of the saint, who was said to have appeared on it to defend the faithful during an attack by heretics.
The event is said to have taken place on June 16, 1569.During the celebration of a mass in honor of the saint, in a chapel built on the site of the hermitage, heretics (Lutherans) attacked the gathered faithful, desecrating the holy place. The congregation turned in cries for help to St. Andrew Swierad, who appeared in the church, wielding a fiery stick, with which he banished the heretics from the temple and the nearby cemetery. Many of them were burned and blinded by fire, some died, while the rest, influenced by the apparition, were to convert to Catholicism. A stone lying in the church cemetery was to be a tangible testimony to these events. It was said to be a large, black, flat boulder with a smooth surface with two carvings in the shape of St. Andrew's footprints - "a large, black stone, in a quadrangular shape as a flat table, three cubits long, on which the footprints of St. Andrew are expressed." The stone could not be located in the field.
The author does not give the name of the locality, but the hermitage of St. Andrew Swierad, who lived at the turn of the 10th and 11th centuries, located today in the village of Tropie on Lake Czchowskie, fits the quoted description. St. Jędrzej Zeroard (i.e., St. Andrew Swierad) was also supposed to be addressed by the faithful calling for help.
Another stone bearing the footprint of St. Kinga is located in the village of Harklowa, near Lopuszna. It was another stone with "the imprint of St. Kinga's foot" after the boulder in Krościenko, which received attention during the period of beatification efforts. In 1684, during Kinga's beatification process, one of the witnesses testified that on the bank of the river called Dunajec, nearly 600 meters from the church located in this village, there is a trace of a human leg imprinted in the rock. In Polish, it is called "the foot of Saint Kunegunda." The bishop's commission further noted that: "the oldest tradition on the subject says that when the Tartars were prowling all over Poland and destroying the entire kingdom with fire and sword, they also threatened the town of Sącz and surrounding villages. At that time Saint Kunegunda, who was already a nun of the Sącz monastery, in order to avoid the consequences of the pagan invasion, together with her nuns went to the Pieniny castle, which had natural inaccessible surroundings and defensive walls. Hurrying on her way she miraculously imprinted a mark on this stone, which has been preserved to the present day" (after Kowalski, Fischer 1992, 142).
According to local tradition, the footprint is said to be on a rocky outcrop in a bend of the Dunajec River. A shrine to St. Kinga is located on it. The rock shows numerous traces of erosion and natural depressions interpreted as footprints of St. Kinga. A hiking and biking trail runs at the foot of the shrine today.
Local legends refer to the figure of St. Kinga (Kunegunda) and her escape from Tartar invasions to the impregnable Pieniny Castle. She was the daughter of King Bela IV of Hungary, married to Boleslaw the Chaste. In 1257 she received possession of the land of Nowy Sącz (Koper 2005, 9). In 1280 she founded the Poor Clares Monastery in Stary Sącz, which she later joined.
According to the account quoted by Felix J. Szczęsny Morawski: "(...) she walked weeping, and barefoot for the terrible rocks of the slope, where in footwear walking her foot keeps slipping. So she injured her feet, marking the path with blood and tears. And where she fell: a tear, grew a white carnation, and where the blood dropped: a red carnation. And at the foot of the Pieniny Mountains, right on the bank of the Dunajec River, she alighted when she stepped on a great stone: the hard rock softened and the trace of her foot remained clearly imprinted; and from beneath the stone on which she wept bitterly, a spring of bitter water gushed forth!" (Morawski 1863, 105-106). The stone was originally said to have been located in Kroscienko nad Dunajcem, next to a sacred spring that was a place of local worship. It was mentioned in 1849 by Jozef Lepkowski and Jozef Jerzmanowski: "on the other side of the Dunajec River, by the shore, lies a large stone, around which beats a spring. A story is attributed to this stone that St. Kunegunda from Hungary came to it and wrote down on it with her cane the unread voices" (Lepkowski, Jerzmanowski 1850, 46).
Today, there is a St. Kinga's shrine at the site, commemorating the crossing of St. Kinga and the Poor Clares of Stary Sącz over the Dunajec River during their escape from the Tatars in December 1287 to Castle Pieniny (cf. Janicka-Krzywda 1997, 12). The boulder was said to still lie here in 1850, when a "footprint" was found on its surface during surveying. At that time there was also a spring with water here, believed to have healing properties. Around 1861, according to F. J. Szczęsny Morawski, "a stone slab with a footprint chipped off and set in a frame, given to Kinga's monastery, still exists in Stary Sącz placed under an altar in the fifth monastery corridor" (Morawski 1863, 106). The stone itself was supposedly damaged during the construction of the road from Kroscienko to Szczawnica, while the spring dried up soon after the incident.
According to an information board set up next to the chapel, it was built in 1860 "on the site of the miraculous imprint of St. Kinga's foot in stone (...) and near a famous, but now defunct, spring providing relief from many diseases (mainly eye diseases), as mentioned in 17th-century documents."
According to the account of a miller from Kroscienko, Wojciech Bisiowiec, from the beatification process of 1629, money was laid on the stone, which was then collected by the poor: "I saw with my eyes a well on the Dunajec River, between the town of Kroscienko and the village of Szczawnica, about which there is a legend from the elders that Saint Kunegunda used to go to it from Pieniny, and people always had this water in honesty, and when someone washes in it he takes comfort, which he asks from God, and people coming put alms on the rock, which the poor coming from Kroscienko take. Imć Pan Baranowski, starosta of Czorsztyn, who lives a mile away from this well, also visits there every Friday, and washes his eyes there, leaving alms for which the poor come, watching when he goes to it. And he knows that this water has helped his eyes and other defects" (after Kowalski, Fischer 1992, 137; Koper 2005, 13).
In the same year, another witness Szymon Czapnik testified that he saw St. Kinga's footprints in stone near Sokolica on the right bank of the river: "as on wax expressed, which marks are the feet of St. Kinga, as people claim steadfast and the common voice such is among the people" (Kowalski, Fischer 1992, 137). Inside the chapel standing in place of the stone is an inscription from a poem by J. Gorzkowski from around 1900.
"The foot of Queen Jadwiga" is one of the most famous objects of its kind in the country, which used to be an object of worship and today is a tourist attraction in Krakow. It is associated with the person of Jadwiga Andegawenska. The carving in the shape of her right foot is located on a stone built into the wall of the corner of the chapel of Our Lady of the Sands, at the Church of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary of the Carmelite Fathers in Piasek. In the 19th century. "footprint" was covered with an iron grating, and the inscription "Footprint of Queen Jadwiga" was engraved above it. Next to the footprint there was also supposed to be an engraved date of 1390, now invisible. The footprint was once supposed to be much clearer, however, as a result of erosion and weathering, it has faded considerably. The chapel was founded in 1675, at which time the stone block with the footprint was also built in. There are two legends about the origin of the footprint. The first refers to the presence of Queen Jadwiga during the construction of the church. Having soiled her shoe in lime, she leaned it against the stone block. When one of the stonemasons was cleaning her shoe, the queen heard from him that despite her work she was unable to support her family. She took off the ring (according to another version of the legend, a gold shoe buckle) and gave it to the stonemason. The latter, as a token of gratitude, forged in a block of stone the imprint of her foot and the date 1390. The second legend says that after the chapel was built, an apparition was said to have occurred there. One of the old men appeared to the Virgin Mary in front of the altar, leaving a footprint in the stone block of the floor. The stone was removed and set into the wall of the chapel, adding the date 1390 to commemorate the event. Today, due to significant erosion, it is difficult to see the forging marks. At the site of the alleged heel, one can see a change in the structure of the stone with the following dimensions: 15 × 5 × 1 cm.
The so-called "Burski Stone" according to local tradition with an imprint of the foot (or two feet) of the Mother of God, built into the wall of the Roman Catholic chapel of the Mother of the Church in Mrukov Forest. Below the chapel breaks out a spring, the water from which is said to have miraculous healing powers. Witold Fusek, in his collection of legends, fairy tales, superstitions and customs of the Biecko land, gives information obtained from an old forester: "when the statue of the Mother of God - the one that is in Tarnowiec today - years ago was transported from Hungary to Jaslo - at the place where the brick chapel stands today, they rested and placed the statue on a rock. On this rock, the body of the Mother of God miraculously embossed its reflection (...) The rock with the reflection of the Mother of God was dumped in the stream - but she herself returned to her previous place. A statue of the Mother of God was erected on this spot, and later the statue was moved lower and a chapel was built there. Lemkos pay great reverence to this rock. They kiss it and "bite it with their teeth", calling out "Our Mother". The rest of this rock is built into the wall of the chapel". According to another legend, St. Kinga was said to have passed by this miraculous place. Franciszek Kotula recalls a local legend about a statue of the Mother of God who escaped to Poland from Hungary during the persecution of Catholics. Tired, she decided to rest on a roadside stone, in which the mark of her small foot was imprinted. A wooden chapel was then erected at the site, in which the stone was placed. According to legend, the date of the wandering of the statue of the Mother of God - the year 1444 - was placed on it. In 1906, a new brick chapel in neo-Gothic style was erected on the initiative of the Bal brothers from nearby Samokliska. A stone with a footprint was placed in its wall. The boulder was supposed to be untreatable, while when thrown into a stream it was supposed to return to its place on its own. It was also supposed to have miraculous healing powers and became the subject of pilgrimages by the faithful from Poland, Slovakia and Hungary, especially on the second day of Pentecost, when crowds gathered at the site and an indulgence was held. Touching the stone and rubbing sore spots with it was said to have healing powers, as was drinking water from a nearby spring. Its fragments were chipped off and taken home. According to local tradition, numerous miracles and healings were supposed to take place at the site. Currently, indulgences are held here twice a year: on the second day of Pentecost and on September 8, the feast of Our Lady of Sowing.
M. Baruch reports by word of mouth that there are large erratic boulders on the hills of the village of Shaniec. On one of them is carved a pair of human feet. The stone among the local population was said to be called "Feet of Lord Jesus." It could not be found during a field search.
An erratic boulder of gray granite located on Adama Mickiewicza Street, near the "Mountain of Miracles" or "Cudak" hill, with which numerous legends are associated, including the site of a former pagan cult or a monastery and church collapsed centuries ago. According to local tradition, the boulder is thought to have come from the wall of a former monastery, while the hollow visible on the surface of the boulder is the imprint of the foot of the Blessed Virgin Mary or Baby Jesus. The hollows seen next to it are supposed to be the imprints of the cat's and dog's paws. One legend says that the stone moves every year by a grain of sand toward a nearby road, and when it reaches it the end of the world will occur. In the 1970s, some of the depressions seen on the stone were cast with cement mortar by the landowner, who was disturbed by interest in the boulder and the destruction of crops by people entering the field. However, foot-like marks and animal paw prints remained intact. About 50 meters northwest of the stone, in a meadow, there is a spring, considered miraculous in local tradition. It is now forgotten and overgrown. On Good Friday before sunrise, local residents would gather around it. On that day the water was said to have miraculous healing powers, especially helpful for the eyes and complexion.
Sources of information: Rutkowski 1927, 171; Czarnecki 2022, 21-22; field queries
A rectangular stone called "God's Foot" measuring about 40 × 18 cm placed in the foundation of the parish church of St. Catherine and St. Stanislaus, on the side of the presbytery. According to local tradition, the depression visible on the boulder is the imprint of the foot of St. Stanislaus, who was said to have consecrated the first temple in this place in the 11th century. It was said to have been then burned down by the Tartars in 1240. The first source references attest to the existence of a church dedicated to St. Catherine and St. Stanislaus at this site in the 2nd half of the 14th - 2nd half of the 15th century. The present temple dates from the early 18th century. Around the church, an early medieval cemetery from the 2nd half of the 12th-13th centuries was discovered during archaeological research
A. Buko (ed. 1997, 124-126) links the stone with the legend of the foot of St. Stanislaus to the nearby barrow cemetery in the so-called "Kleczanow Forest" and the Pentecost games and ceremonial procession held here.
The "God's foot" stone and the "miracle spring" in Knorydy.
The chapel with the "miraculous spring" was erected in 1872 on the initiative of Pavel Tsar, one of the villagers, according to tradition at the site of an apparition of the Mother of God, who was said to have appeared on a stone lying nearby. It was consecrated on January 30, 1873.
Under the altar in the chapel is a well built on the spring. The water is believed to have miraculous healing powers.
According to another legend, the Mother of God was said to have appeared on a stone to a father who was passing that way with his blind son. When the blind man wanted to touch her luminous robes the figure disappeared. Only a footprint remained on the stone and a spring with miraculous healing water helping mainly with eye diseases gushed out next to it. For more information, see Sacred and Cursed. Stones..., pp. 93-96.
The stone is located next to the wooden chapel of the Icon of the Mother of God "All Distressed Joy" in Knorydy - now a shrine belonging to the Orthodox parish of the Dormition of the Mother of God in Boćki. The boulder is displayed on a concrete rise next to the chapel and decorated with flowers. The faithful coming to the stone rub their hands against it and kiss the alleged footprints of the Mother of God.
According to informants from Knorydy, the miracle site saved the village from burning during World War II. While surrounding villages burned, not a single house was destroyed in Knorydy. According to another informant, the stone with the "footprint of the Virgin Mary" was originally located elsewhere (cf. Pine 2001, 55).
The surface of the boulder shows numerous natural, longitudinal depressions. Dimensions of the stone: oval shape 110 × 70 cm; height 50 cm.
In 2016, a wooden chapel with a spring dedicated to the Icon of the Mother of God "All Fearful Joy" burned down. A new chapel was built, the site was adapted for the faithful.
Sources of information: Miechowicz 2010, 55; field queries
