I remember one day when I brought the Pope home after an audience, Father Dziwisz and I took him under our arms and helped him get off the papamobile. We transplanted him into a second special chair, a small wheelchair, which was cleverly invented by engineer Sagretti to make it easier for the Pope to get to the elevator leading directly to the apartment. Suddenly, I noticed that a white handkerchief with embroidered initials JP2 fell out. It was lying on the hood of a jeep. I took it and immediately turned to him, saying that it had fallen out of his pocket. Then, in a quiet, weak voice, the Pope said to me: “Leave it to yourself, Pietro; it will be such a small souvenir from me for you.” I was very touched, I took the handkerchief home and handed it over to my wife, and she put it in a special casket, where it has remained to this day. In the place he touched, the handkerchief with time – after the departure of the Pope – changed its color and today it has a brown color. Previously, it was completely white. For me, it has a special dimension, because I received it directly from the Pope. And, after his death, I received from Father Stanisław another relic – a coin in which a tiny gauze sprinkled with the blood of the Holy Father is enclosed. This gauze was used to clean his wounds after one of the last treatments in the hospital. Father Stanisław divided it into tiny pieces and gave it to several people close to the Pope.
Magdalena Wolińska-Riedi “It happened in the Vatican”
Znak Publishing House. Kraków 2020
Page: 251
