Celebrations have begun in the western town of Gniezno, the cradle of Polish statehood, of the 1,050th anniversary of the baptism of Polish ruler Mieszko I, an event considered to mark the origin of the Polish state.

On Thursday afternoon, President Andrzej Duda will attend a thanksgiving service at Gniezno Cathedral officiated by the Vatican’s Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, with Polish Roman Catholic bishops in attendance.

In a resolution adopted unanimously by Poland’s lower house of parliament on Wednesday, MPs stressed that Mieszko’s decision to adopt Christianity enabled Poland to join “the circle of Western European civilization.”

The resolution also says that it was under the banners of Christianity that Poland was able to defend Europe’s common heritage in 1683, the year of the relief of the Siege of Vienna - in which King Jan III Sobieski of Poland halted the advance of Turkish troops into Europe - and in 1920, during the Battle of Warsaw, in which Polish troops defeated an advancing Bolshevik army.

On Friday, a joint session of both chambers of the Polish parliament, the 460-seat lower house and the 100-seat Senate, will be held in Poznań, western Poland, during which the president will give a special address to the nation.

It will be the first meeting of the joint body, known as the National Assembly, to be held outside Warsaw.

The anniversary events are to be attended by Polish MEPs, members of the diplomatic corps, representatives of various Christian denominations, the chief Rabbi of Poland, Michael Schudrich, as well as foreign church leaders and members of Polish Catholic missions in France, Germany, Belgium and Brazil. (mk/pk)