First class relic of St. John Paul II finds a permanent home in the St. Cloud Diocese

Story by Katherine Austad, for The Central Minnesota Catholic

“What do we do now?” 

Adam Dombrovski and Father Michael Wolfbauer remember looking at each other in disbelief earlier this year after receiving St. John Paul II’s first-class blood relic from the hands of Cardinal Stanisław Dziwisz, former Archbishop emeritus of Krakow, Poland, and personal secretary to the saint himself. 

After receiving the relic and conversing in lively discussion with Cardinal Dziwisz, they decided to step into the Wawel Cathedral where St.  John Paul II had celebrated his first Mass after being ordained a priest. They prayed in thanksgiving while reflecting, in awe, on the seven year journey that had brought them to this blessed occasion.

It started in 2016 when Pope Francis declared the “Year of Mercy.” Father Michael led a local pilgrimage which included a stop at the Divine Mercy Shrine in Sauk Centre. Following the tour, the Dombrovski family, including Adam’s parents Pat and Sheri, with the support of Father Michael and Father Greg Paffel, explored the possibility of securing a relic of St. Faustina, who is attributed to carrying the message of Divine Mercy to the world.

After getting permission through paperwork and a series of background checks, Father Michael, the Dombrovskis and a group of parishioners made a pilgrimage to Poland, where they received a bone fragment relic of St. Faustina on Oct. 5, 2018 – St. Faustina’s feast day. 

This sparked an effort to request relics of St. Maximilian Kolbe and St. John Paul II. On May 31, 2019, Adam and Father Michael visited Niepokalanów, Poland, where they received a relic of St. Maximilian at his friary. They awaited paperwork for the St. John Pau II relic to be approved when the pandemic of 2020 shut everything down.

On May 13, 2023, the feast day of Our Lady of Fatima and the anniversary of the attempt on St. John Pau II’s life in 1981, Father Michael and Adam finally received the relic of St. John Paul II. The two had worked together and been friends for years, but they both agreed that praying in thanksgiving in the Wawel Cathedral after receiving St. John Paul II’s relic was one of the most special experiences to share. 

“It was an honor to be the ones to receive not one, but all three of those relics and ending with a blood relic of St. John Paul II felt very important,” Adam said.

They laughed about the traveling details and mishaps but noted how they “felt the Blessed Mother opening doors” for them throughout the pilgrimages. After praying in the same space St. John Paul II celebrated his first Mass, they were able to celebrate Mass together surrounded by the flowering grounds of the St. John Paul II Center. 

Both Father Michael and Adam feel they have a special connection to St. John Paul II.

“I was nine years old when he was elected Holy Father,” Father Michael said. “I remember watching Pope John Paul II on TV as a little boy and he was in his red cassock, like a superhero. He was such an important figure to me. As I grew in the Church, he was such a light.” 

Father Greg Paffel shared an example of how St. John Paul II influenced his vocation to the priesthood as he learned to be “among the people.” 

For Adam, his love for “Papa John Paul” runs deep as well. The pope’s “Theology of the Body” explanation “filled wounds that sin left” as he journeyed back to his faith as a young adult. He studied at the John Paul II Institute in Washington, D.C., and used that time to press into the saint’s story and sacrificial example of meeting people as they were.

Both Adam and Father Michael desired a unique reliquary to “fill the viewer in on whose relic they are approaching.” They settled on a design by a man Adam contacted and met while in Poland. The detailed sculpture depicts a display of symbols associated with St. John Paul II’s life including a large replicated version of his papal crucifix. The relic is currently displayed at St. John Church in Foley.

The relic of St. John Paul II will make its permanent home in the Divine Mercy Chapel in Sauk Centre and is planned to arrive there on the saint’s feast day Oct. 22 at the 10:30 a.m. Mass. 

Adam, the priests and people involved in bringing the relic here have great hopes that it will draw people into the unique and inspiring lives of the saints. 

Father Michael compared spending time with the relics to wearing a loved one’s item of clothing. 

“It can help us feel close to them,” he said. “It reminds us that this happened, this is true. Their closeness can help us enter into intercession and transcendent prayer which will lead us to deeper friendship with the communion of saints. This type of prayer can expand our relationship with God and inspire us on our own paths to heaven.”