In the seventies, Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński was not only the undisputed leader of the Polish Church, but also a widely respected authority in society, whose voice was of great importance. In the above analysis, the attitude of the „Primate of the Millennium” to the socio-political reality of the PRL was discussed. A comprehensive view of this hierarch was presented regarding the functioning of the communist system in Poland; his approach to the state-church relationship; to key political events (amendment to the constitution, events of June 1976, election of Cardinal Wojtyła as pope) and attitude to the rise and activity of the pre-August opposition. This analysis does not aspire to the full exhaustion of the topic, it focuses on issues most for Cardinal Wyszyński important in the socio-political sphere.

This study outlines the challenges faced by authors who might undertake in the future the task of writing a full scholarly biography of Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński. The author of this paper analyzes the state of research to date and evaluates the existing literature on the subject. The following two sections deal with challenges regarding source material and interpretive challenges in describing diverse areas of the life and scope of the Primate of the Millennium’s activities. The paper focuses on the period of Wyszyński’s service as a primate, as it seems that in-depth research on the earlier stages of Stefan Wyszyński’s life could be an arduous task to conduct.