4th kayaking trip "In the Footsteps of Father Karol Wojtyła" [PHOTOS]

The event began at 10 a.m. with a gathering at the commemorative stone dedicated to St. John Paul II in Przemyśl. Participants then made their way to Wyszatyce, following the historic route along which Father Karol Wojtyła and a group of students traveled down the San River to Leżajsk 67 years ago, in July 1958. The event is not only an opportunity to spend time together actively, but also to fulfill the Polish Pope's request: "guard these trails for me."

Rafting of Father Karol Wojtyła

We wrote more extensively about the papal stone and Father Karol Wojtyła's kayaking trip in ŻP in 2022. The stone's originator and founder, Józef Rybczyński, said at the time: "There is a custom of marking the traces of his wanderings on Polish soil, fulfilling, in a sense, a testament: 'Guard these trails for me' (...) The commemoration is to be modest, as St. John Paul II did not wish for monuments. I chose a stone from the San River, along which Father Karol and his student group had paddled, to mark the traces. (...) Father Wojtyła's kayaking group arrived in Przemyśl from Krakow by train on July 19, 1958. It consisted of eight students – four men and four women. After Mass at the Church of the Holy Trinity, they proceeded to the kayaking dock. They made their first stop in Wyszatyce, on the beach opposite the so-called "Priest's Ditch," and set up camp with a bonfire in a pasture in Walawa. They stocked up on provisions at the Zaworski family's. Their final stop was Tarnawiec, where they arrived on July 21st, after a 91.1-kilometer (56.7 mi) swim. The next morning, they rested by the San River. They separated at the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Consolation in Leżajsk. Father Karol took the train to Krakow, where duties called him, while the others traveled to the Bieszczady Mountains, where they met again on July 23rd. They began each day of the expedition with Mass (...). The participants remembered the San as a charming but difficult river, a fact confirmed by the Holy Father in his conversation with Cardinal Dziwisz.