A few weeks ago, 22-year-old Bartek Krakowiak set off on foot from Warsaw to Medjugorje. Currently, over 4,500 people are on a virtual pilgrimage with him. Perhaps you'd like to join him?
This story begins in Warsaw's Mokotów district. The protagonist, Bartek, grows up in a family with a "tradition of alcoholism ." His great-grandfather, grandfather, and father drank. The boy remembers his home as a place of constant arguments, and the place where he felt safest was… under the bed, where he hid from his father. For as long as he could remember, he'd heard everywhere that he was worthless. His father never gave Bartek a hard time.

When Bartek was 10, his family was supposed to move into his grandparents' apartment. However, the move turned out to be a bigger undertaking – during renovations, his mother, seeing her husband drinking himself into a stupor with the workers, decided to leave with the children. Instead of moving to Ochota, Bartek and his family moved in with his grandmother near Warsaw. Unfortunately, things didn't get any better. The young Warsaw native couldn't find his place – at 14, he knew perfectly well what alcohol and drugs were, and how to steal money for them. A street child.

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The First Fall

Signs of recovery? Perhaps the first came when, completely intoxicated, he fell from a roof and hit his head on a brick edge. Blood alcohol content: 2 per mille. A few minutes of life – that's all the rescuers gave him. And yet he survived.

Did it make an impression on him? Not at the time. After all, he was a regular at the police station, but definitely not at school. He was given probation, but he was clearly a tougher fighter than the police, because he eventually ended up in juvenile detention . Bartek was 15. And he found himself in hell: fighting for food, clothing. No wonder he ran away. He survived "on the loose" for three months – partly with friends, partly in basements. But they caught him. Solitary confinement. Two weeks. To "diversify," he was beaten on the legs with a baton at night.

The Second Fall

After his second escape, he ends up in an addiction treatment center. There he undergoes therapy. Today, he emphasizes that he finally learned something about himself and gained empathy for other people with problems. He turns eighteen. It's time to return home. Unfortunately, it's also time to return to his old surroundings. Things are even worse than before. He meets a girl. She's pregnant. His mother once again rises to the occasion. She supports the immature parents-to-be as best sh

The Third Fall

Six months into her pregnancy, Bartek's girlfriend miscarries. "I saw my son lying in pieces on the floor, and a nurse came in a moment later, swept Igor into a dustpan, and that was it. When I carried him in his coffin, I started talking to God for the first time; "talking" is an understatement—I was screaming at Him: why did He take someone I loved away from me?!" And yet Bartek described himself at the time as a nonbeliever...

He spoke and He listened

And then miracles began to happen . Bartek took stock of his life and went to confession. Until then, God had existed for him only in the saying, "Fear God!" Now he went on a retreat where people danced, sang, and played guitars!

First impression? Crazy people. Some kind of sect. After a while, he felt like a lunatic for not participating. He experienced rest in the Holy Spirit, attended deliverance masses, and decided he wanted to follow Jesus, be His apostle, and change the world for the better…

Constant conversion

Conversion isn't an amulet protecting against evil. Bartek experienced this too. In various ways. Among other things , he entered into a relationship that once again distanced him from God. About a year ago, he began to fight again. To return. A manifestation of this return was a journey to Mary.

A few weeks ago, Bartek Krakowiak, now 22, set off on foot from Warsaw to Medjugorje. His posts, daily notes from this extreme pilgrimage, initially published in the "On – Włączeni" group, generated so much interest that Facebook readers began urging him to start a blog.

Bartek initially resisted, wondering whether it would feed his pride, but he finally decided to take this step.

"From the Boot to Mary" is a good piece of adventure literature, but above all it is an extraordinary testimony of complete trust in God and human kindness - Bartek slept both in a tent and with good people, he was fed, watered and warmly welcomed by strangers.

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I can't help but feel that Bartek's story is a kind of Station of the Cross, followed by resurrection and then a path to ascension. Bartek walks it here on earth, right alongside us.

See for yourself – over 4,500 people are currently on a virtual pilgrimage with Bartek Krakowiak. Why not join us? https://www.facebook.com/zbutadomaryi/