From all Easter days in the Vatican, Easter Sunday was the most Polish. Nuns prepared festive breakfast - recalls Archbishop Mokrzycki – cold cuts, eggs, cheeses, there was short crust tart (mazurek) and Easter cake (baby wielkanocne). And, there was colomba. That is traditional Italian Easter cake; sweeter than our Polish Easter cake. As he says, nuns were baking a lot. But, also a lot of pastries and cakes came from Poland. There were lambs made of dough. Poppy seed cakes came, walnut layer cake – lists the Archbishop. – The Holy Father was very fond of these sweets. He remembered them from the past, as it was all from friends, from Kraków, and other parts of Poland. In the morning, there was no Mass. The Mass was celebrated in the Basilica of St. Peter after breakfast. Then, the Easter message with the Urbi et Orbi blessing. The Archbishop recalls that after Lent full of recollections and reflections, the Easter Sunday was at the Papal apartments, a true explosion of joy and spring. Nuns were putting flowers everywhere – he says. During Lent, there were no flowers almost at all; ...and now, everywhere – a lot of daffodils, tulips. It was very fresh, spring; beautiful.
With the consent of Archbishop Mokrzycki “He liked Tuesdays the most”
M Publisher, Kraków 2008
