The Poles are an iron-forged people, shaped into a sword of faithful resilience in the heat of battle, caught between the anvil of warfare and the hammer of conquest. Furthermore, this faithful resilience has been shaped by the resilience of the Faith, the indomitable adherence of the Polish people to the Catholic Church which is the defining attribute of the nation itself.
There is something special about Poland. This, however, is saying nothing special. There is something special about every nation. Each nation is a unique cultural flowering of a people’s shared collective heritage. Each nation is a beautiful and unique flower in God’s multicultural garden. This is why the globalist goal of imposing a single monocultural brand on the peoples of the world is a crime against humanity. It is a crime against cultural diversity in all its multifarious splendour.
And yet, the foregoing notwithstanding, there is still something special about Poland beyond its mere uniqueness as a flowering of culture. It might be said that Poland is not only special but extra special, or especially special.
Why is this? What makes Poland so especially singular?
Ironically, or paradoxically, its singular place in the garden of nations can be compared to the singular place of England as expressed by William Shakespeare, in the words he places on the lips of John of Gaunt:
This precious stone set in a silver sea
Which serves it in the office of a wall
Or as a moat defensive to a house,
Against the envy of less happier lands,
This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England….
The irony is to be found in the radical difference between England and Poland that these lines illustrate. Unlike England, Poland is not “set in a silver sea which serves it in the office of a wall, or as a moat defensive to a house”. Poland has no such sea or moat to protect it. It is hemmed in by neighbours which have all too often been enemies and, as often as not, conquering enemies. It has been besieged and attacked by the Russians in the east and the Prussians in the west, and by the Swedes in the north and the Austrians in the south. Whereas the English are an island people, conditioned by the “moat” that separates them from mainland Europe, the Poles are an iron-forged people, shaped into a sword of faithful resilience in the heat of battle, caught between the anvil of warfare and the hammer of conquest. Furthermore, this faithful resilience has been shaped by the resilience of the Faith, the indomitable adherence of the Polish people to the Catholic Church which is the defining attribute of the nation itself. It is this fearless and courageous loyalty to Christ and His Church which has made Poland the heroic heart of Europe.
Many examples of Poland’s fidelity could be cited but a few will suffice. It was Poland’s famous “winged hussars”, under the command of King John III Sobieski, which won the decisive victory in the Battle of Vienna in 1683, saving Europe from the Islamic Ottoman Empire. In the heroic defence of their homeland from the communists in the Polish-Bolshevik War of 1919-20, the Poles saved Europe from Marxist imperialism and totalitarianism, at least until the betrayal of Europe at the Yalta Conference in 1945, which handed half of Europe, including Poland, over to the terror of the Stalinist Soviet Union. It was Poland, inspired by the Polish Pope, St. John Paul II, which began the overthrow of the Soviet Union. Inspired by Pope John Paul’s visit to Poland and his call for courage, the Polish people began a campaign of civil resistance to communist rule which would spread to all the other Soviet-controlled countries of Europe, including, ultimately, Russia itself. Today, it is Poland which is spearheading the European resistance to the globalist imperialism of the European Union and its plutocratic allies. These few, these happy few examples of Polish heroism will serve to confirm Poland as Europe’s heroic heart.
Such an understanding of Poland’s importance was encapsulated by G. K. Chesterton. “If Poland had not been born again,” he wrote during a visit to Poland in 1927, “all the Christian nations would have died.” Echoing this viewpoint, Hilaire Belloc wrote at the outbreak of World War Two that “the test is Poland”: “The determination to save Poland, which is a determination not only to defeat Prussia but to oust the vile and murderous Communism of Moscow, is the moral condition of victory. If we waver we are lost.”
Shortly after his return from Poland, Chesterton gave a talk in London which was advertised as “What Poland Is”. He thought the title unfortunate. “I should be very sorry if any brilliant Pole asked me what England is…. [Y]ou can’t define a living thing, least of all such a living thing as Poland, one of the most living things in the world, because nothing can be so living as a thing which has risen from the dead.”
Although he couldn’t have known it, Chesterton was stating something more profound and more prophetic than he could have imagined. In the following decades, Poland would die twice more under both German and Soviet occupation, only to rise again from both deaths. Today, Europe’s heroic heart is again being attacked, this time by the forces of globalism. These are powerful enemies. Perhaps they might succeed in killing Poland once again. If so, those with faith will return once more to the catacombs to wait patiently and prayerfully for the next resurrection.
Republished with gracious permission from the Saint Austin Review.
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The featured image is “Polski: Polonia II, ilustracja do Psalmów przeszłości Zygmunta Krasińskiego” (1861) by Jan Matejko, and is in the public domain, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
A most powerful and inspiring essay!
Excellent essay hurray for Pearce.
This is an important reminder that the struggle of Poland and Hungary and some nations in Africa and Asia against globalization is akin to the struggle against communism two generations ago.
One note: John of Gaunt speaks the lines quoted from The Tragedy of Richard II.
Could you please elaborate on who you think the forces of globalism are?
I was a WWII baby and literally grew up under the threat of a Communist invasion. My family was very politically inclined and never covered our ears. My mother and aunt were convinced that no one could defeat Communism. I couldn’t accept that, so when I started high school at my Catholic Academy, I began to read every book on saints from the library. I wanted to identify what characteristic the saints, particularly the martyrs, had in common. I concluded it was faithfulness and heroism in the face of sure torture and death. So, then, I had to study all the books on the resistance to the Nazis. It took about 12 months for me to discover that that heroism was unique to the Poles. After praying for years by myself and then with my husband and children one Hail Mary daily for Poland, Lech W.’s heroic stand was televised. Our girls still remember me exclaiming loudly that this was proof that the USSR’s days were numbered and we doubled down praying for him and Poland. Oddly enough, Bill Clinton, in his address upon the dedication of the Flight 93 memorial, identified this same mark of heroism in those who tried to overcome the terrorists. His insight was not grounded in faith, but profound, nevertheless. Needless to say, I find your article timely, inspiring and challenging!
Thank you Mr. Pearce for this article. It will go on my FB profile. We are fighting in here, but your prediction may be correct and we will die again soon. It seems that now the enemies got smarter they corrupt the youth…this time it will be a bloodless death. Or, perhaps there will be a miracle: “And yet, Jesus promised St. Faustina, “I bear a special love for Poland, and if she will be obedient to My will, I will exalt her in might and holiness. From her will come forth the spark that will prepare the world for My final coming” (Diary, 1732). “The land of death” would become the birthplace of the modern Divine Mercy devotion.” There is that big “IF”. We are fighting but that monster is devouring soul after soul. Recently I talked to my friend on the phone and he almost broke down over his teenage daughter’s spiritual state of being.
I wish more people in the West were like you Mr. Pearce. But it is not the case: Poland bled herself out for the West on multiple occasions…more or less always betrayed. The West has been cunningly using Poland’s willingness for heroism for its egoistic profits.
I wish, Mr. Pearce, we could repeat that unforgettable afterglow that took place in Slippery Rock at the 2016 G.K. Chesterton Conference. Perhaps this time in Poland as I moved back for good.
And speaking about G.K. Chesterton, here is a good quote of his regarding Poland:
“I judged the Poles by their enemies. And I found it was an almost unfailing- truth that their enemies were the enemies of magnanimity and manhood. If a man loved slavery, if he loved usury, if he loved terrorism and all the trampled mire of materialistic politics, I have always found that he added to these affections the passion of a hatred of Poland. She could be judged in the light of that hatred; and the judgment has proved to be right.” — G. K. Chesterton Letters on Polish Affairs (1922)
I’ve just read your reply today. The recent election seems to have born out your prediction. Who knows what the future will bring?
Big “thank you” dear Author- from Poland.