The Church of St John the Baptist and St John the Evangelist, situated in the very heart of the old city, on the corner of św. Jana and św. Tomasza streets, is one of the oldest and smallest churches in Kraków. Inside, it boasts the Painting of Our Lady of Ransom of Slaves, also known as Our Lady of St John, and the Mother of Freedom, brought from Spain by Prince Stanisław Radziwiłł.

The work itself is quite mysterious: both the person of the painter and the time of painting remain unknown. An analysis of the technique allows us to conjecture that it originated in Kraków or southern Poland around 1520–25. It presents the Blessed Virgin holding the Infant Jesus on her left arm. The Virgin holds a clover flower in two fingers of her right hand.

For 50 years, from the moment of being donated to the Church of the St Johns, the painting stood in a side altar by a pillar, nearly entirely forgotten. The first recorded miracle attributed to the holy image was the salvation of a prisoner sentenced to death in 1633. The convict hung his manacles, which can still be seen hanging by the altar to this day as a votive thanks for his release. From that time on, the congregation thronged to the icon of Our Lady in the Church of the St Johns at moments of great personal and national jeopardy. In just three years (1637–39) 356 instances of extraordinary grace were recorded. It is here that King John III Sobieski, grateful for victory at Vienna, prayed in the 17th century. People experienced so many graces that the painting of the Mother of Freedom was promoted to the high altar, where it has remained to this day. People in prisons and remand centres, as well as those in thrall and suffering persecution still arrive at her image with their requests, beseeching, and gratitude.

While in the church, it’s also worth taking a look into its former sacristy. In 1998 a chapel was set up here to accommodate the mortal remains of Mother Zofia Czeska (1584–1650), founder of the Congregation of the Sisters of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, popularly known as the Prezentki (Presentation Sisters) in Poland. As a childless widow she addressed her aid to orphaned girls and those from poor families. In the 1620s, she opened the Institute of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary for Girls to provide for them at ul. Szpitalna 18, known as “The Orphans’ Home”. It was Poland’s first girls’ school.