New permanent exhibition
The Missionary and Ethnographic Museum
of the Divine Word Missionaries in Pieniężno
has been operating since the 1970s, but its collections are older, dating back to the 1930s. Originally, they served as teaching resources for clerics preparing for missionary work on various continents. Over the years, the constantly growing collection of exhibits allowed for the creation of a museum with two specializations: missionary and ethnographic, and for the collection to be presented to a wider audience. Initially, this was done within the framework of ethnographic workshops and thematic exhibitions devoted to objects acquired on individual continents. In 1984, thanks to the acquisition of exhibition space in the basement of the monastery, a large permanent exhibition was created, presenting ethnographic objects in a geographical layout, supplemented with natural relics and items related to missionary activity. This exhibition was closed in 2018 in regard to plans to develop a new presentation. It is worth mentioning that the Museum, in the Missionary Archives, stores interesting documents illustrating the history and individual achievements of the institution. It also holds museum and inventory facilities for activities related to the storage and working up of collections.
The ethnographic collection
of the Missionary and Ethnographic Museum in Pieniężno
is rich (over 9,000 inventory numbers) and interesting in terms of content. Its most striking feature is its geographical (covering almost all continents of the world), cultural, and thematic diversity. It contains numerous examples of objects related to everyday and festive life, but also items associated with traditional rituals and ethnic art (including contemporary ones). Among others, these include objects that have been “withdrawn” from use due to a shift in worldview or because they have been destroyed/damaged, as well as “single-use” ritual objects. The artifacts are dated variously, usually to the second half of the 20th century. However, there are also numerous contemporary objects based on old models of traditional handicrafts and ritual art, but created for collectors rather than for one’s own ritual needs. In addition, the Museum’s collection also includes a fairly large group of examples of so-called airport art, i.e., objects made for tourists and adapted to their tastes, usually characterized by far-reaching eclecticism in form and content. A set of objects that is interesting and arouses justified interest not only among visitors is the collection that can be described as “contemporary art of Christian theme.” This group of artefacts includes crucifixes, images of saints and angels, liturgical objects (vestments, stoles, chalices, patens, pyx) and examples of occasional objects related to Catholic feasts (e.g., a collection of Nativity Scenes “Bethlehem mangers”). This set also highlights the changes taking place in non-European cultures under the influence of the Western world and its religion. The vast majority of the artifacts owned by the Missionary and Ethnographic Museum in Pieniężno date back to the second half of the 20th century. It is worth noting that the collection has recently been expanded with two deposits from German SVD missionary museums of slightly older origin (first half of the 20th century).
In 2025, the Missionary and Ethnographic Museum in Pieniężno opened a new permanent exhibition to the public, consisting of two separate displays closely related to the nature and substantive objectives of the institution. This information presents the main premises of the project, as its realisation is not yet complete.
The exhibition “To Be a Missionary”
This is a historical presentation discussing the history and ideological foundations of the Society of the Divine Word (SVD) and showing the basic nature of its formation and missionary activities. It reveals the paths that led young people to the mission. It highlights the nature and areas of their education and the beginnings of their activities in assigned mission territories. Moreover, it points to the nature and achievements of the SVD in the field of formation, education, and medicine. We also find here information on the history and activities of the Polish Province and the Mission House in Pieniężno. In this exhibition, archival and evoked materials play a significant role – interviews, submitted private photos, and published memoirs – and certain aspects of everyday life are shown using personal items provided by missionaries.
In the first room, we learn about the history of the Congregation and the nature of its activities. In the following rooms, we learn about the history of Pieniężno and the monastery, the nature of the formation (textbooks, daily schedule, and sample study plans), and we also have the opportunity to read selected letters written by young seminarians to their friends during their first years of study.
The next room presents a reconstruction of a missionary’s room (from the second half of the 20th century), in which the period furniture, marked at the top with the symbols of the Mission Houses to which they belonged, attracts attention.
The next room shows the missionary’s first encounter with a foreign, unknown area, cultures, and difficult living conditions, as well as his gradual integration into the life of the local communities. Everyday objects are supplemented with photographs from the missions and additionally illustrated with the content of letters sent to Poland.
Subsequent parts of the exhibition present the achievements and nature of the work undertaken in the mission centres: activities in the fields of spiritual formation, education, and medicine. The last part of the exhibition is devoted to the history and achievements of the Polish Province of the Society of the Divine Word in the field of human promotion, humanitarian aid in mission countries, and the activities of the Mission Department in Poland. It highlights the scientific achievements of Polish Divine Word Missionaries and recalls their social and promotional activities related to the missions.
This is a permanent ethnographic exhibition presenting objects from various continents and cultures, most of which date back to the second half of the 20th century. Its main theme is the community of timeless human needs and experiences along with the similarities visible in the way they are fulfilled by representatives of various cultures and areas of the world. The main goal of this exposition is to show a specific unity in diversity.
The exhibition displays objects from different parts of the world and different periods, divided according to specific themes, presented subsequently in individual rooms:
The exhibition ends with a display pointing to the existence of a Christian-themed art collection and emphasizing the topical and formal similarities of artworks created under the influence of the new religion in different parts of the world.
The author of the conceptual framework and script for both exhibitions:
Dr. Anna Nadolska-Styczyńska
The visual design for the entire exhibition:
Dr. Anna Skołożyńska-Cieciera (ASC STUDIO)
The curators and executors of the exhibitions:
Monika Anna Kwaśniewska MA, Andrzej Damian Borsuk MA
Supervision of the project:
Father Wiesław Dudar SVD (Director of the Missionary and Ethnographic Museum of the Divine Word Missionaries and Director of the Missionary Department of the Divine Word Missionaries)
Father Mariusz Góryjowski SVD (Director of the Missionary Animation Centre of the Divine Word Missionaries)
Multimedia: Group AV
Financed by The Secretariat for Missions of the Congregation of the Divine Word
The organizers would like to thank the missionaries for their help, consultations, and sharing of materials, as well as the museologists and ethnologists of numerous museums, not only Polish ones, for their valuable assistance in the creation of the exposition.