Ecce Homo Church (Sanctuary of St Brother Albert)

In 1982-1985, a church was built in Woronicza Street in the Prądnik Czerwony district for the Congregation of Albertine Sisters. The modern construction designed by Marzena Popławska and Wojciech Kosiński, has created a single large space covered with open roof work. The modest interior is the work of the artist sculptor, Stefan Dousa.

St Brother Albert – Adam Chmielowski (d. 1916, canonised 1987), is the object of particular veneration in this church. He was a participant of the January Uprising, a painter, and finally a monk, who devoted himself to the guardianship of the destitute, alcoholics, and the homeless. The unfinished painting Ecce Homo – Behold the Man on the high altar is a work of Chmielowski himself from 1879-1881, which the Saint is rumoured to have never parted from. It is a representation of the suffering Christ in the crown of thorns and purple robe which forms a shape reminding one of the heart on His chest.

The beatification of Brother Albert by Pope John Paul II in 1983, while the church was still being built, added a great boost to the cult of veneration of the saint. Through the efforts of the Albertine nuns, the relics of Brother Albert were moved from the Church of the Discalced Carmelites to the new church where they were deposited under the altar. Close to the altar there is a reliquary with the mortal remains of the co-founder and the first Mother Superior of the Albertine nuns, the Blessed Bernardyna Maria Jabłońska.

In 1997, the Metropolitan Bishop of Kraków, Cardinal Franciszek Macharski, elevated the church to the rank of Sanctuary.