The Holy Cross Chapel

We have put a map of the Shrine after the text.

The Holy Cross Chapel is on the left-hand side of the main entrance. Its interior decoration is the gift of the Diocese of Cologne and was designed by Professor Bert Gerresheim. Its dominant  features are a tall cross entwined by a crown of thorns, a statue of St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein), Patron Saint of Europe, and a Way of the Cross cast in bronze and noteworthy for its rich symbolism. The Cross and the stations along the route of Jesus’ Passion bespeak God’s merciful love for Man, offering its best testimonial.

The Chapel was consecrated in 2011 by Cardinal Joachim Meisner, Archbishop of Cologne.  In his homily, Cardinal Meisner said, “What is the Cross? The Cross is the positive obtained by the work of God from all that is negative in the world. We, the people living in the world, are capable only of one thing, going along the horizontal line along which there is war, poverty, and death. There is no possibility for us to rise and move upwards from this horizontal line. It was not until Christ came that He joined up the horizontal with the vertical line. And now there is only one point ‒ the Cross ‒ from which we can rise and go up.”

Jesus told Sister Faustina that one  hour of meditation on His sorrowful Passion was worth more than a whole year of self-flagellation even to the drawing of blood. Such contemplation brought people a lot of good and pleased Jesus. “My daughter, often meditate on the suffering I endured for you, and nothing that you’re suffering for My sake will seem big. I find you most pleasing when you are meditating on My sorrowful Passion; unite your little sufferings with My sorrowful Passion so that they may have an infinite value before My majesty” (Diary 1512).

1. Main entrance to the Shrine
2. Sister Faustina’s House: hotel & museum
3. Convent
4. Antoninek House: Faustinum Association

5. Merciful Jesus Chapel & Saint Faustina’s Tomb: Heart of the Shrine

6. Oratory: room where Saint Faustina died
7. Chapel of the Lord’s Passion
8. Divine Mercy Basilica
9. Saint Faustina’s Chapel
10. The Communio Sanctorum Chapel
11. Saint Andrew’s Chapel
12. The Holy Cross Chapel
13. The Chapel of Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows
14. Perpetual Adoration Chapel
15. Viewing Tower
16. Convent Graveyard
17. Sister Faustina’s House: restaurant, souvenirs & meeting hall
18. Pastoral Lodge: hotel & restaurant
19. Mercy House
20. Information Booth
21. Souvenirs & Misericordia Bookshop
22. Saint John Paul II Hall
23. Car park
24. Car and coach park
25. Toilets
26. Bridge of Mercy, for the Saint John Paul II Shrine & tram stop