Cleveland’s Polish Cultural Garden
Honors Saint John Paul II

PostEagle
May 30, 2019
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OHIO – Saturday, May 18, 2019 marked the 99th birthday of St John Paul II and a grand celebration in Cleveland as another Polish notable was added to the lovely Polish Cultural Garden. Numerous clergy, including Bishop Gries and Cleveland-area dignitaries celebrated the blessing and dedication of Polish-born, his Highest Holiness Saint John Paul II. Present was renowned Polish-American sculptor Andrej Pitynski who created the bronze bust.

Connie Adams, Garden Chair, Gene Bak, Gary Kotlarsic and the Polish American Cultural Center spearheaded the effort to honor Saint John Paul II. In September 1969, Cardinal Karol Józef Wojtyla (later to be JPII) visited Cleveland and said Mass at the Shrine Church of St. Stanislaus.

The Polish Cultural Garden in Cleveland displays busts of several famous Poles: Copernicus, Henryk Sienkiewicz, Frédéric Chopin, Madame Marie Sklodowska Curie, Ignacy Jan Paderewski and Adam Mickiewicz. They circle a beautiful fountain in the Garden at the corner of East Blvd and St. Clair in Cleveland. Founded in 1916, the Cleveland Cultural Gardens are one of Northeast Ohio’s oldest and most beautiful treasures. More than 31 gardens, designed and cultivated by distinct cultural or nationality groups, adorn the drive along Martin Luther King Boulevard and East Boulevard in Rockefeller Park. They represent the diversity and multiculturalism that is Cleveland, and bring life to the Gardens’ mission of “peace through mutual understanding.”