Black Madonna -
Mary of Czestochowa

Between the 1st & 3rd of August 2003, Greg (editor of sortlifeout.co.uk) will be visiting 'Jasna Gora' ('Bright Hill'), Czestochowa - site of the 'Black Madonna'.

While there, Greg will pray for the healing & protection, for himself and others.

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If you would like to send a name of a person who needs healing and or protection please e-mail the following details, as soon as possible (ideally before 3d August):

Name
Country
Age (approx)
Condition (optional)

(Please Note: If requesting healing on behalf of somebody else, please make sure you have their permission. )

e-mail Greg: flux3000@hotmail.com - Re: Miracles

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Czestochowa with Jasna Góra Monastery is one of the major pilgrimage centres of the Christian world. It is also the second biggest - after Lourdes - centre of the Marian cult. Every year Czestochowa is visited by 3 - 4 million pilgrims and tourists.

In 1996 five European towns, functioning as centres of Marian cult i.e. Loreto, Lourdes, Altötting, Fatima and Czestochowa signed a co-operation agreement. The main objective of this co-operation is to share experience in the field of organisation of religion - motivated tourism and to create conditions for wide promotion of these towns.

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Religious shrines - journeys to sources of grace

Because of the presence of the monastery complex of the Paulite order on Jasna Gora (Clear Mountain) in Czestochowa, the Slaskie Voivodeship is one of the most important centres of pilgrimage in Poland. The tradition of pilgrimages goes back to 1382, when prince Wladyslaw Opolczyk brought Paulinite monks from Hungary, and the holy icon of the Virgin Mary, known as Our Lady of Czestochowa or the Black Madonna, from Belz in the Ukraine. According to the legend, the icon was painted by Saint Luke, on a board of wood from the Holy table. However, the latest investigations have revealed that it is a Byzantine icon, painted between the 6th and the 8th centuries.

There are about 50 pilgrim routes leading to Czestochowa from all across Poland. Their length ranges from a few kilometres to a few hundred kilometres. Most of the pilgrims come for important religious feasts relating to the story of the Virgin Mary. It is estimated that Jasna Gora is visited annually by about 5 million pilgrims from all over the world and the biggest group is that known as the Warsaw Pilgrimage, which has been coming regularly to Jasna Gora since 1711. The visits of Pope John Paul II have also attracted millions of pilgrims.

The rich tradition of pilgrimage and its unflagging popularity has made Jasna Gora a unique religious and social phenomenon on a global scale. The spontaneity of this movement shows the unique position of Jasna Gora as a place of the defence of national values and as a cultural treasure.

In the same way as Jasna Gora has a spiritual meaning for the whole country, Piekary Slaskie is the "spiritual capital" of Upper Silesia. The tradition of pilgrims walking to the Holy Virgin of Piekary Slaskie has been cherished since the 17th century with a considerable revival in interest in the mid 19th century. This happened during the tenure of the parish-priest Alojzy Ficek who was a well-known pioneer of social Catholicism. Between 1971 and 1978 the leading priest of the male pilgrimages was cardinal Karol Wojtyla, who, later as Pope John Paul II, gifted the shrine of Piekary a stole and a golden rosary.

The list of religious shrines in the Slaskie Voivodeship is complemented with local or regional shrines in Katowice-Bogucice, Klobuck, Konczyce Wielkie, Mrzyglod, Mstow, Pszow, Rudy, Skoczow, Sw. Anna, Turza Slaska, and Zarki-Lesniow.

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Czestochowa, Poland " The Black Madonna "

The Black Madonna was painted by St. Luke the Evangelist; and it was while painting the picture, Mary told him about the life of Jesus, which he later incorporated into his gospel.

The next time we hear of the painting is in 326 A.D. when St. Helen found it in Jerusalem and gave it to her son and had a shrine built for it in Constantinople. During a battle, the picture was placed on the walls of the city, and the enemy army fled. Our Lady saved the city from destruction.

The picture was owned by many other people until 1382 when invading Tartars attacked a Prince Ladislaus' fortress, where the painting was located. A Tartar's arrow lodged into through the throat of the Madonna. The Prince transfered the painting to a church in Czestochowa, Poland.

In 1430, the church was invaded and a looter struck the painting two times with his sword, but before he could strike it another time, he fell to the ground in agony and pain, and died. The sword cuts and the arrow wound are still visible on the painting.

Our Lady of Czestochowa (the Black Madonna) was soon made Queen and Protector of Poland. In 1920, Russians were invading Poland, when they saw an image of Our Lady in the clouds, and they withdrew on seeing the image.

Miraculous events such as spontaneous healings have occured for centuries on making pilgrimage to the portrait.

The painting is known as the Black Madonna because of the soot residue that discolors the painting. Centuries of votive lights and candles burning in front of the painting are the cause of the soot.

• http://www.christusrex.org/www1/apparitions/pr00002.htm Czestochowa, Poland " The Black Madonna "

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Black Madonnas: Our Lady of Czestochowa
Michael P. Duricy

The image of Our Lady in Czestochowa, Poland [at right] is among that small group of Black Madonnas recognized throughout the entire world, largely due to the recent manifestations of public piety shown by the reigning Polish Pope, John Paul II. The image is sometimes called Our Lady of Jasna Gora after the name of the monastery site in which it has been kept for six centuries. Joan Carroll Cruz relates the following 'miracle story' regarding the selection of this site:

Another 'miraculous' aspect of this image is that its antiquity is so great that its origins are unknown, as if "dropped from the heavens." Legend attributes its creation to St. Luke, the evangelist, who "painted a portrait of the Virgin on the cedar wood table at which she had taken her meals." St. Helena, the Queen-Mother of Emperor Constantine is said to have located the portrait during her visit to the Holy Land and to have brought it to Constantinople in the fourth century. After remaining there for five centuries, it allegedly was transferred in royal dowries until it made its way to Poland, and the possession of St. Ladislaus in the fifteenth century.

The legend continues: During Ladislaus' time, the image was damaged during a siege, by a Tartar arrow, "inflicting a scar on the throat of the Blessed Virgin." In 1430, Hussites stole and vandalized the precious image, breaking it into three pieces. Adding insult to injury:

Miracles

The miracles worked by Our Lady of Czestochowa seem to occur mainly on a public scale. During her stay in Constantinople, she is reported to have frightened the besieging Saracens away from the city. Similarly, in 1655 a small group of Polish defenders was able to drive off a much larger army of Swedish invaders from the sanctuary. The following year, the Holy Virgin was acclaimed Queen of Poland by King Casimir. It is also recorded that Our Lady dispersed an army of Russian invaders by an apparition at the River Vistula on September 15, 1920. In more recent times, the Czestochowa Madonna has also been acknowledged for her protection of and cooperation with the Polish nation. Beyond these public prodigies:

The miracles attributed to Our Lady of Czestochowa are numerous and spectacular. The original accounts of these cures and miracles are preserved in the archives of the Pauline Fathers at Jasna Gora.

The image is not so well-known only on account of its history of miracles. Its international reputation has been considerably enhanced because of the personal devotion of the current Roman Pontiff:

In modern times, Pope John Paul II, a native son of Poland, prayed before the Madonna during his historic visit in 1979, several months after his election to the Chair of Peter. The Pope made another visit to Our Lady of Czestochowa in 1983 and again in 1991.
Why is She Black?

A final question remains: why is Our Lady of Czestochowa black?

Cruz mentions a possible link to the Canticle of Canticles: "I am black but beautiful"; but concludes that "The darkness is ascribed to various conditions [e.g. accumulated residue from candles], of which its age is primary." Broschart, by contrast, opines:

the shrine was destroyed by fire, but the picture was not burned - however, the flames and smoke had darkened it and from that day it has been known as the "Black Madonna."

Recall that Moss saw the image as Byzantine in form, dating from the Medieval period. He added: "the skin pigmentation is characteristic of this stylized portraiture."

Interestingly, Ernst Scheyer, an art historian who studied the image, believed that "the present image was restored in the nineteenth century and painted somewhat darker than previously."

Adding to all this confusion, a notable Swiss copy, completed by Kosmoski in 1956 and kept in the Hospice of the Great St. Bernard Pass, is much darker than the version in Jasna Gora, while a copy at a shrine in Doylestown, Pennsylvania is depicted in lighter flesh tones. All of which makes the question of authorial intent extremely complicated. Perhaps all that may be said of Our Lady of Czestochowa is that she may be called black, but she is certainly beautiful. Her miraculous reputation, though, is beyond dispute.

For further information on Our Lady of Czestochowa, refer to In Quest of the Black Virgin ... by Leonard W. Moss pp. 53-74 in Mother Worship:Themes and Variations (1982) by James Preston (ed.); Miraculous Images of Our Lady (1993) by Joan Carroll Cruz; Call Her Blessed (1961) by Charles B. Broschart; and The Shrine of the Black Madonna of Czestochowa (1989) by Janusz Pasierb.

• http://www.udayton.edu/mary/meditations/olczest.html Black Madonnas: Our Lady of Czestochowa
  
  

payable to Greg - super-sonic@i12.com