Maryja jako patronka dobrej śmierci w kaszubskiej pobożności ludowej

Abstract

The Kashubian ethnic group inhabiting Gdańsk Pomerania has to a great extent preserved traditional customs connected with death and funeral. The event of death, which in Christian terms has not only a biological-social dimension but above all supernatural. The Kashubians' reaction is an ardent prayer, in the first place. The paper seeks to show Marian piety, updated during the ceremony of death and funeral. During an illness and agony one calls on to Mary as a Mother who accompanied Her Divine Son in the mystery of Redemption at the Calvary. The motif of imitating Christ and His Mother plays an important role in the Christian model of death. Therefore both the dying man and his neighbours think that Mary's intercession and Her pattern are at that moment particularly topical. She remains a teacher of bravery in the drama of death, and in suffering She adopts the attitude of absolute trust in Christ. In the time between death and funeral the Kashubians join together for a home rosary. In this prayer they call on to Mary as an Intercessor of the fellowship gathered for prayer. Her specific role refers, however, to the soul of the dead man, and according to the folk belief She saves from purgatory. The traditional image of a „mediate place” is connected with dolours, fire and painful suffering. Such is the image of purgatory which mobilizes the living to say ardent prayers and to store their hope in the intercession of the Immaculate. The climax of the home mourning liturgy is the so called „empty night” The night eve preceding the funeral is composed of rosary and religious singing with many stanzas. Mary’s care and succour is beseeched many times during that nocturnal vigilance. She was the one who participated in the Descent from the Cross and Jesus’ funeral and is particularly dear to the mourners surrounding the coffin. Funeral ceremonies are obviously dominated by liturgical contents. Marian elements appear, among other things, in the songs sung at the funeral procession to a church, in the rosary said in the church, and at a cemetery in the Salve, Regina and Angelus Domini. The rituals practiced in Kashubia are connected with death and draw on the patterns inherited from the previous generations. The piety formed in the past was then continued by folk leaders. They used old psalm-books and prayer books shaping, as regards their form and subject matter, their funeral ritual.