BASILICA OF THE VISITATION
OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY

SVATÝ KOPEČEK

CZECH REPUBLIC

This deeply poetic place on the top of the hill is connected with a memorable meeting of pope John Paul II with youth, the pilgrimage church of Olomouc, the Marian shrine visible from far away in the whole region.

“The Visitation presents to us Mary's attitude of humble service and disinterested love for those in need.”

- Pope John Paul II

I only fully understood that moment many, many years later. The moment when we were standing there on the hill under the very cloudy sky with the views all over the Haná plain, the rain was about to start any moment. Holy Father, right on the verge between his years of force and years of illness, meditating about the Our Father prayer. I visited it again, on sunny days, but nothing somehow compares to that grey cloudy afternoon.

May 21, 1995

Videos from the official channel of the Premonstratensian order in the Czech Republic: