Polish Beliefs
A look at the religious history and traditional worship of Poland.
Since its founding as a political state, Poland has been a majority Catholic nation. It arose from West Slavic cultures. These tribes practiced a faith similar to the Slavic Paganism of Kiev, Bulgaria, and Russia. The West Slavs came into more contact with European Christians than their related neighbors. Faced with a choice in religious alliances, many of the tribes united and were baptised under Duke Mieszko I in 966. Their conversion was not an entirely smooth one. Pagan revolts broke out over the next few centuries. Peasant violence against the Church rose in response to the growth of feudal systems and the imposition of serfdom. By the 1040s, however, Poland had reunited, and the Church’s position was firmly established.
The Kingdom of Poland remained staunchly Catholic but practiced religious tolerance. Jewish people, shunned in other nations, enjoyed greater protections in Poland. They soon settled in its town and cities, forming the largest Jewish community in Europe. Their roles as merchants, moneylenders, and administrators brought new economic growth to Poland. When the Protestant Reformation reached its borders, the Catholic Church largely halted its advance through Jesuit education. While Protestantism was discouraged, Lutherans and Calvinists were allowed to continue their worship. The kingdom also maintained a complex relationship with Islam and other faiths. As one of the easternmost states of Christian Europe, Poland often faced invasion from foreign forces. Its early history saw widespread devastation by Tengri and Islamic Mongol armies. The nation’s most famous military victory came in 1683, when King John III Sobieski broke the Turkish siege of Vienna. Nonetheless, Polish rulers employed Muslim Tatar soldiers who served loyally for generations.
After World War II, religion in Poland entered a long and difficult period. Communist policies encouraged atheism and worked to decrease the power of Catholicism. This strategy backfired. The Polish people clung to the Church as a cultural and political symbol. Its suppression increased their resistance to Soviet control. The Roman Catholic Church selected Cardinal Karol Wojtyła to serve as Pope in 1978. In his youth, he participated in armed resistance against Nazi Germany in Poland. As Pope John Paul II, he became a national icon and inspiration to the Polish people. When the nation reformed in 1989, Catholicism remained an important symbol of national identity. More recently, fears of Islamic terrorism have sparked a rightward, nationalist shift in Polish politics. The nation’s Muslim population is currently estimated at about .1 percent of its total. Roman Catholicism continues to dominate religious life at around 86.9 percent.
References
Biskupski, Mieczysław B. The History of Poland. Greenwood Press. 2000.
Dyczewski, Leon, ed. Values in the Polish Cultural Tradition. The Council for Research in Values and Philosophy. 2002.
Hertz, Aleksander. The Jews in Polish Culture. Northwestern University Press. 1988.
Lukowski, Jerzy and Hubert Zawadzki. A Concise History of Poland. 2nd ed. Cambridge University Press. 2006.
Mandhai, Shafik. “How Big an Issue Is Islamophobia in Poland?” Al Jazeera, Al Jazeera, 14 Nov. 2017, www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/11/big-issue-islamophobia-poland-171113064903344.html.
“The World Factbook: Poland.” Central Intelligence Agency, Central Intelligence Agency, 20 June 2018, www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/pl.html.
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