Our Lady of Czestochowa
In the monastery-fortress of Jasna Gora, in Czestochowa,
Poland is venerated an ancient icon of Holy Mary and the Infant God, with a
fascinating history.
Tradition has it that it was painted
by St. Luke the
Evangelist on a table built
by Our Lord Jesus in St. Joseph’s workshop.
Empress
Saint Helena who found Our Lord’s cross, also discovered this icon in
Jerusalem, and took it to Constantinople where her son, Constantine, built a
church to enshrine it.
The image remained in Constantinople for 500 years until,
through dowries, it was taken to Russia to a region that later became Poland.
This icon, now known as Our Lady of Czestochowa, has an
embattled history.
While still in Constantinople, placed on the wall of the
city, the icon so frightened an army of besieging Muslims that they took
flight.
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| Saint Ladislaus, 15th Century King of Poland |
In the 15th century, the polish king Saint Ladislaus
installed the holy image in his castle. Tartar invaders besieged the castle and
an arrow pierced the image in the region of the throat, leaving a scar. (see closeup pic showing the scars)
Interestingly, repeated attempts to repair the damaged
painting failed. The scar always reappears.
Wishing to protect the icon from subsequent attacks, Saint
Ladislaus took it to his town of birth, Opala.
On the way, he stopped at city of Czestochowa to rest,
placing it in the wooden church of the Assumption in the nearby place of Jasna
Gora (Bright Hill).
In the morning, the horses pulling the carriage containing
the icon refused to move. Taking this as a sign, St. Ladislaus re-installed the
image in the church of the Assumption and confided sanctuary and monastery to
the Pauline Fathers.
It was on this day, August 26, 1382 that Saint Ladislaus
established the feast of the Madonna of Czestochowa and it is still observed
today.
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Our Lady of Czestochowa closeup
showing scars from vandals |
Vandalized
Next, the Hussites, followers of the heretic John Hus from
Prague, attempted to harm the holy icon.
In 1430 they stormed the monastery and
stole the image. Placing it in a wagon, they were carrying it away when the
vehicle stopped and could not be moved. The attackers hurled the image to the
ground, breaking it in three pieces.
One man pulled his sword and struck
the
image twice on the cheek
leaving two deep scars.
On attempting to slash it
thrice,
the man went into agonizing
convulsions and died.
The two scars on the holy image as well as the one on the
throat have always reappeared after attempts to repair them.
Besieged
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| Siege of Czestochowa in 1655 |
The holy icon’s great epic was the Siege of Czestochowa in
1655 when an army of 12,000 Swedish Protestant invaders led by a General
Miller, attempted to take the monastery-fortress of Jasna Gora. The year
before, a vision of a scourge in the face of the sun had been seen over the
area. Indeed, King Karl Gustav, and the Swedes invaded and conquered most of
Poland with the help of Calvinist Polish nobles, ousting King Jan Kasimir.
One monastery, led by a heroic prior, Fr. Augustine
Kordecki, refused to surrender. Taking in five Catholic Polish nobles, the
monastery resisted with only 300 men. The besieged faced treason, threats, and
numerous assurances of the enemy’s “good will” in attempts to seduce them into
an inglorious “peace”.
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| King Jan Kasimir |
But placing their full trust in Our Lady, whose image they
guarded, the monks answered, “Better to die worthily than to live
impiously.” Thus began the 40-day siege, and nothing was spared to bring
down the walls of Jasna Gora.
Meanwhile, the forty monks and the besieged prayed before
the Holy Icon of Czestochowa. They prayed and fought, fought and prayed. And a
mysterious “Lady”, dressed in a white or blue mantle, whom the Swedes called a
“witch” began to appear on the ramparts, herself supplying the canons. The
sight of her terrified the invaders.
A mysterious fog also enveloped the holy hill, which at
times gave the illusion of the monastery-fortress being higher, at others
lower, the result being that the canon-balls missed their target.
Finally, the mysterious lady appeared in the night to
General Miller himself. After procuring a copy of the icon of Czestochowa,
Miller said, "It is absolutely not comparable to that virgin who
appeared to me; for it is not possible to see anything comparable on earth.
Something of the celestial and divine, which frightened me from the beginning,
shone in her face."
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Siege of Czestochowa in 1655
Oil painting 17the Century |
In the end, spooked and discouraged by these supernatural
occurrences, the Swedes lifted the siege. From the victory of Czestochowa, the
Poles again took heart, and rallying around King Jan Kasimir, took back their
country.
The next year, in the presence of the clergy, nobility and
people,
King Kasimir solemnly proclaimed
Our Lady of Czestochowa Queen of
Poland.
Recognizing that Poland had been chastised for its sins, and oppression
of the less fortunate, He promised to rule with equity.
In 1920, when the Russian army assembled at the River
Vistula, the Polish people had recourse to their Madonna.
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| War on Warsaw |
The Russians quickly
withdrew
after the image appeared in the clouds over Warsaw.
In Polish history, this is known as the Miracle of Vistula.
During the Nazi occupation of Poland in WW II, Hitler
ordered all religious pilgrimages closed. In a demonstration of love and trust
in Our Lady, half a million Poles defied Hitler’s orders and visited the
shrine. Following the liberation of Poland in 1945, a million and a half people
expressed their gratitude to their Madonna by praying before the miraculous
image.
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| Nazi occupation of Poland |
Twenty eight years after the first attempt to capture
Warsaw, the Russians took the city. That year 800,000 visited the Lady of
Czestochowa in defiance of the invader.
And today, free from Communism, Czestochowa continues to be
the religious heartbeat of Poland.
To the miraculous, fearless Lady of Jasna
Gora, the Polish go with their needs and petitions, their sorrows and their
joys. Indeed she is their embattled, victorious, miraculous queen.
Special Thank you to America needs Fatima for this article.
