The Lipce pilgrimage to Częstochowa is both a communal act of devotion and the occasion of Jagusia’s separation from Jasio. The village sends a large company on its way with a votive Mass, a cross, a banner, and a blessing; for Jagusia, however, the procession carries away the person on whom her thoughts have fixed. The contrast between the villagers’ shared journey and her solitary return gives the departure its emotional force.

Reconciliation before the departure

The morning begins with a tentative attempt at peace. Hanka the Farmstead Keeper arrives ready to join the journey and is the first to reach out her hand to Jagusia. She asks forgiveness for the wrongs she has done. Jagusia accepts the kindness but does not pretend that the hurt has vanished; Dominikowa, too, acknowledges that she is no longer keeping anger in her heart. The exchange briefly opens a way toward reconciliation, while leaving the injuries between them visible rather than resolved by a simple apology.

Hanka then tells Jagusia that the organist’s son, Jasio, is coming with the company. The news immediately changes Jagusia’s attention: she rushes out of the cottage only partly dressed. Hanka says the organist’s wife had told her that Jasio was determined to go, presenting his presence as something that will make the journey more cheerful and dignified. Jagustynka quietly suspects that his reason is not so straightforward, but the villagers have already gathered at the church, and there is no time to question the matter. The departure thus follows an abrupt disclosure, and Jagusia has little opportunity to prepare for what it means to her.

Mass and the pilgrims’ departure

The Parish Priest of Lipce comes out to celebrate the votive Mass for the pilgrims. Jasio serves at the altar as usual, but his face appears unusually pale and pained. His eyes are reddened and still hold back tears; the church, the people in it, and the pilgrims approaching communion seem to him blurred by grief. Tereska lies crosswise through the service, Jagusia watches with frightened eyes, and Jasio’s mother sits in the gentry pew. The scene places his distress within the familiar order of the service without explaining it away: the rite proceeds, while the people assembled inside it carry their private sorrows.

After Mass, the Parish Priest of Lipce takes leave of those who are going, sprinkles them with holy water, and blesses them as they emerge. The banner rises, the cross leads, and singing begins as the company sets off. Among the people from Lipce are Hanka the Farmstead Keeper, Marysia Balcerkówna, Kłąb’s wife and daughter, Grzela, Tereska and her husband, and two hired hands. Tereska’s husband has vowed not to eat hot food during the whole journey. Joined by people from other villages, the company numbers about a hundred. Carts piled with bundles follow behind, making the pilgrimage a journey undertaken not by isolated individuals but by a substantial traveling community.

The entire village comes out to see the pilgrims off. Though it is early, the heat is already building; the sun blinds the onlookers, and dust rises around the people on the road until the procession seems to move through choking grey clouds. This communal spectacle makes the distance traveled visible even before the company has gone far. The cross and singing mark the pilgrims’ departure, while the carts and bundles show the practical preparations that accompany the religious purpose.

Jagusia’s farewell to Jasio

Jagusia accompanies Dominikowa and the others, but she experiences the departure apart from them. She is drawn and trembling with desolation, and she keeps her eyes on Jasio. She cannot approach him: the organist’s wife and children remain beside him, leaving no chance for a private word or even a clear view. Mateusz the Young Villager, her mother, and other people speak to her, but their conversation cannot dislodge her attention from the fact that Jasio is going. She believes she will never see him again.

At the shrine in Podlesie, Jagusia and her companions say goodbye to the pilgrims. The company continues along the road, its singing receding until it disappears from sight; only the dust remains visible in the distance. Jagusia trails back toward the village after the others, feeling as if she were a corpse. The procession has not merely left her behind at a roadside shrine: in her perception, its disappearance has emptied the day of the person and future she had been imagining.

After the procession passes

Jagusia longs for night and its silence, but darkness brings neither consolation nor rest. She wanders around the cottage and goes out onto the road, eventually returning as far as the Podlesie shrine where she last saw Jasio. There she searches the wide sandy road for traces of his footsteps, a shadow, or even a clod of earth he might have touched. The search makes her grief concrete: unable to follow the departing company, she looks instead for the smallest remaining sign of its passage.

Nothing answers that search. Tears eventually fail her, and the account leaves her with pain that seems to have overwhelmed both speech and ordinary consolation. Only at moments of prayer does a reproach break from her lips, questioning what her suffering is for. The pilgrimage continues as a collective journey of faith, but its immediate ending for Jagusia is separation without comfort. By setting the ordered ritual of Mass and procession beside her solitary vigil and futile search, the episode shows how the same departure can belong to a village’s religious calendar and, for one person, become an experience of profound loss.