Sacralizing a Battlefield: The Religious Heritage of the Battle of Warsaw 1920

Abstract

This article presents a process of creating religious heritage that goes beyond the “sacralization of heritage” or the “heritagization of religion”. It is grounded in the assumption that religious heritage may be an element of lived religion, while the strategies of managing the past (and of preserving and transmitting values) observable within Roman Catholicism all fit within the discourse of heritage. This text focuses on the heritage of the Battle of Warsaw developed in Roman Catholic religious practice. The battles fought in 1920 are also referred to as the “Miracle on the Vistula”, since the Polish victory in that confrontation is seen as resulting from a divine intervention. Such an image of the battle permeates its heritage, allowing the Roman Catholic Church to shape it in accordance with religious teachings. This article is based on fieldwork on the anniversary events of the Battle of Warsaw. It aims to illustrate how the battlefield may become sacralized, blurring the lines between religious practices and heritage. The haptically experienced materiality of the battlefield makes it possible to localize heritage perceived not only as the site of bloody conflict, but also as the scene of the Virgin Mary’s intercession and divine intervention.

Keywords

• religious heritage
• sacralization
• commemorative practices
• Roman Catholic Church
• Battle of Warsaw