Every Pole, it seems, has a story about Pope John Paul II, the favorite son who celebrates the 20th anniversary of his papacy on Friday.
Some remember him as Krakow Archbishop Karol Wojtyla, a one-time actor and playwright with a passion for hiking and skiing in the Tatra mountains. Others tell of spiritual fulfillment - former President Lech Walesa called it "charging the batteries" - from encounters close or peripheral during one his seven pilgrimages to his homeland.To Poles, some of the planet's most devout Catholics, the man and his two decades as pope symbolize national awakening, freedom from communism's cloying shackles - in short, a rebirth of the national soul.
"Papa to us is like God," said nurse Elizabeth Jurek, using the affectionate Polish name for the 78-year-old John Paul. "Because of Papa, people around the world talk about Poland."
John Paul's popularity is almost overwhelming here. Plaques and portraits bearing his image are everywhere - in churches, offices, shops. An old joke advises that if you want development money, arrange for the pope to visit your church or town.
Opinion polls consistently show the pope as the nation's most respected and trusted figure, more than any politician or intellectual.
The papacy in several ways mirrors the evolution of Poland from a struggling Soviet satellite to a newly democratic, emerging nation that has embraced Western-style economic and social reform.
John Paul's ascension as the first Polish pope on Oct. 16, 1978, brought immediate change at a time when repeated protest movements and uprisings against the communists has been relentlessly quelled.
Suddenly, Poland's beleaguered people - tired of chronic food shortages, political oppression and the drudgery of East European communism - had an international champion. Even better for the more than 90 percent Catholic population, it was the global leader of their beloved church.
"Given their history and their beliefs, no other honor to the nation could have satisfied them so completely," journalist Neal Ascherson wrote in his book "The Polish August."
A year later, John Paul made his first pilgrimage to his celebrating homeland, a trip that had long-lasting repercussions.
"People went out into the streets to greet their pope and saw that there are millions of them, thinking the same way," said Zbigniew Romaszewski, a former Solidarity activist who now sits in the Senate chamber of parliament.
Two years after Walesa and Solidarity finally ousted the communists in 1989, John Paul made another pilgrimage, but to a vastly different country. People expected the pope to praise them for gaining their freedom.
Instead, they heard harsh homilies against abortion - which many Poles consider a personal choice - as well as pornography and consumerism, with the pope urging Poles to cope with their new freedoms by building their lives on the "rock" of the Ten Commandments.
Resentment against crucifixes in government buildings and the optional teaching of Catholicism in schools lingers today, but John Paul's popularity remains powerful. More than 6 million Poles turned out during his 11-day, 12-city pilgrimage last year, which was billed as a possible farewell visit.
"I don't agree with him on many different issues, but that doesn't take away my love for him. Nothing could," said Magda Samborska-Murgio, 30, a Pole who now lives in New York.