The Virgin Mary herself indicated the location for this beautiful monastery. Legend says that a prisoner, awaiting the death penalty, relentlessly prayed to the Virgin Mary and repented. He asked for her mercy. The Virgin Mary appeared to him on the eve before the execution, gave him a piece of wood, a knife, and ordered him to carve a figurine with her image. By morning, the prisoner made a fantastic figurine of her with the Baby in her arms. The judges were so stunned by the beauty of the figurine and the prisoner’s story that they forgave and released him straight away. The former prisoner carefully followed the Virgin Mary’s order: he placed the figurine onto the first linden tree he met on the way home.

Very soon, miracles and healings began to take place there. It became famous. Many attempts to move the wonder-working statuette to the Ketrzyn church were made, but each time it returned to its linden tree. Then a chapel was built on this place. It happened at the turn of the 17th-18th centuries. The construction was funded by Polish, Belarusian, Lithuanian, and Russian princes: Radziwills, Czartoryski, and Sapieha.

Today, the Swieta Lipka Sanctuary is a large complex that consists of a monastery, a basilica, a museum, a chancellery, church and Sunday schools, and a pilgrims’ guest house.

The magnificent basilica (which is 400 years old!) is a masterpiece of Baroque architecture. The interior decoration includes many works of art: the rich altar decoration, the moving pipe organ by the master Johann Mosengel and the woodcarver Krzysztof Peucker with moving figurines, frescoes, and sculptures, and a handmade gate, consisting of 3,000 forged linden leaves by the master Johann Schwarz. The basilica regularly hosts services and organ music concerts. Donations help preserve the basilica and its relics.

Be sure to go to the museum! It houses a unique personal library of Pope John Paul II. You can visit the museum only with a Jesuit monk certified by the Vatican.