Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
by Bohumil Petrík
Trzycatek (Fides News Agency) – On the feast of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Queen, on August 22, representatives of three Central European nations walked together and prayed for peace and reconciliation among peoples. Holy Mass was celebrated for the sixteenth time on the border between the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Poland, with three bishops and local communities.
The meeting point is called Trojmezí in Czech, Trojmedzie in Slovak, and Trójstyk, or Trzycatek, in Polish.
“In times of uncertainty and unrest, we want to pray together for peace and be a sign of unity and friendship,” announced the official invitation from the Slovak Diocese of Žilina, which borders the Czech Republic and Poland.
The three bishops who took part in the celebration on the mountain meadow above Trojmezí were Tomáš Galis, Bishop of Žilina; Martin David of the Czech Diocese of Ostrava-Opava; and Roman Pindel of the Polish Diocese of Bielsko-Żywiecka.
This year, the pilgrimage attracted a large number of Czech faithful, according to the Czech diocese.
Some carried national and parish flags and wore traditional regional dress.
During Holy Mass, Bishop Roman Pindel also invited Father Tadeusz Pietrzyk to present the decree by which the Church of Our Lady of Frýdecká in Trzycatek, located on Polish territory, becomes a place of pilgrimage, and he exhorted everyone to take care of the shrine.
Bishop Pindel then encouraged those present to remain “the first worshippers of the Mother of God” and never to stop “bearing witness to their devotion,” asking for “the graces and blessings necessary for yourselves and your loved ones.”
Bishop Martin David of Olomouc invited everyone to remember that another shrine made of living stones is the “living community of the Church that we form despite our personal differences, despite our different languages, borders and nations.”
The believing community, the Czech bishop stressed, is “the oldest temple,” which has endured for two thousand years, without which “there would be no point in building or restoring any other temple.” Indeed, all other temples “are here to help us continue building this living temple, to create a better community among ourselves and, above all, with God.”
(Fides News Agency, 29/8/2026)
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