Among these memories, though one usually does not remember the first years of one's life very well - I can clearly see the Nazareth of Wadowice and the Nazareth sisters (...). When they saw us, a few boys, wandering around the streets in the middle of the town, they started inviting us, to the nursery and day care, as it was once called. So I ended up in that Nazareth nursery and day care during the summer holidays.
John Paul II
The Nazareth Sisters arrived in Wadowice in 1896 and soon after they had settled down, they opened a day-care centre for children. They conducted extracurricular activities in music and French for the students of the local female school. The sisters took care of the children coming to the day care, a boarding house for girls studying at the departmental school (middle school), and also created vocational courses for poor girls from the area. Thanks to the skills gained during these courses, the participants could earn their living in the future.
The beginnings of the existence of the day care centre are connected with the first period of existence of the House of Divine Providence. A month after their arrival, the sisters had a group of over 50 children under their care. The development of this work was initially limited by modest living conditions in a rented flat at Vienna Street (today Mickiewicza Street). In the middle of 1896, after the purchase of the property at Lwowska Street, the sisters gained a larger room for small children under their care. In the mid-1920s a benefactor who knew the Nazareth Sisters from the United States, came to Wadowice and bought a neighbouring square for the sisters, adjacent to the previously purchased property. A few years later, the sisters managed to move the day care there. From the very beginning, it was intended for the poorest children, many of whom attended it completely free of charge. In the interwar period, during the economic crisis, the situation of many local families was difficult.
Although the age difference between the two Wojtyła brothers, Edmund and Karol, was rather large, the boys had a close relationship. Before Edmund went to Cracow to study medicine, he often took care of his younger brother. They spent time together on trips and went to football matches. If Edmund played a game, little Karol was sometimes seated on the hats of his brother's middle school friends, laid on the ground to indicate a goalpost. Soon afterwards Lolek started playing football himself and became a great goalkeeper.
When Edmund went to study in Cracow, little Karol stayed with his parents. The father taking care of his sick wife could not fully take care of his younger son and that is why the boy was taken care of by the Nazareth Sisters. Together with his friends, wandering through the streets of the town, he was invited by the sisters to their day care, where he participated in the activities and games organised for the youngest. At that time, sister Filotea Kosarz was the guardian of the children. As a Cracow metropolitan bishop, Archbishop Karol Wojtyła visited the House of Divine Providence in Wadowice, where he met with the Nazareth sisters, including the sister, who was his guardian in the day care. Then, he asked if there was a sister among them who took care of him. He remembered how she spanked him and ordered him to stand in a corner. The old lady, Sister Filotea, approached him and repented and apologised to the cardinal. Wojtyła laughed then cordially and replied that there was nothing to apologise for, and said that he even wanted to thank the sister for spanking him. Because his life has been much more peaceful since then.
