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{{data|18 August 2018}}
[[File:Festiwal Pierogów w Krakowie.jpg|thumb|350px|A stand at Pierogi Festival in Cracow]]
If you know anything about Polish cuisine, then you must have heard of (and, hopefully, sampled) pierogi, the delicious Polish member of the large and diverse family of stuffed dumplings. Possibilities for the filling are limited only by the cook's imagination, but the typical stuffings include seasonal fruits like strawberries or blueberries, and farmer cheese with sugar for the sweet varieties, and for the savoury ones: ground meat, sauerkraut with mushrooms, and farmer cheese with potatoes and fried onions. The latter kind (so simple, yet so tasty!) is known in Polish as ''pierogi ruskie'', suggesting an origin not in Russia (as some folks, even in Poland, might think), but in Kyivan Ruthenia (a.k.a. Kievan Rus ') – a medieval civilisation centred in what is now Ukraine. Of course, pierogi are still as popular in Ukraine as they are in Poland, except, over there, they go under the name ''varenyky''.
This year, the 16th Pierogi Festival took place in Cracow's Mały Rynek (Lesser Square). It always happens around August 17, that is, the day when the Catholic Church remembers Saint Hyacinth, also known as Jacek Odrowąż. Authors of the festival's best pierogi are awarded a statuette of the holy man, who is often called the patron saint of pierogi. Other pierogi celebrations are held in other parts of the country – invariably on or near Saint Hyacinth's Day.
Two legends, linking Saint Hyacinth with pierogi, are briefly cited on the official website of Ms. Magdalena Gessler, a Polish celebrity cook.
{{Cytat|How did pierogi find their way into Poland? A legend says that Saint Hyacinth Odrowąż brought them back from KievKyiv. He was captivated by their taste, which he learned to appreciate during his missionary travels to 13th-century Rus, or modern-day Ukraine. Hence the name, “pierogi ruskie”.
Potatoes being still unknown in Europe at the time, the pierogi which made such an impression on Hyacinth must have been filled with cheese and groats. Another version of the legend says that, during a famine caused by Tatar raids, the saint fed the poor with pierogi he had made himself, giving him the moniker, “Saint Hyacinth of Pierogi”.
[[Category: Pierogi kościelnickie]]
[[Category: Pancakes]]
[[Category: KievKyiv]]
[[Category: Cracow]]
[[Category: Tatars]]
