Routes to the Roots: The Revival of Greek Catholic Sanctuaries in Eastern Poland

Through extensive fieldwork in Eastern Poland (Subcarpathia) this study examines the relationships between memories of the post-World War II resettlements, religious practices, and the feeling of belonging to places and shrines. Two Greek Catholic sites considered in this study are being revived both mentally and physically through the memories and restored religious practices around them. In the perspective of those Greek Catholic and Orthodox believers expelled from the region after World War II and for their descendants, those places remain holy, despite being ruined and desecrated. The article argues that pilgrimages serve as means to claim continuity with a particular place and with the group that shares a history of belonging to that place. Using an anthropological lens, this research shows the important role that pilgrimages play in linking people with their ancestry and specific sacred places—churches, pilgrimage sites, springs—in which family memories become part of religious experience, and religion is perceived as it is lived.