The Queen of Poland
The Black Madonna
National Symbol of Poland

Our Lady of Czestochowa
"O Holy Maid, who Czestochowa's shrine
Dost guard and on the Pointed Gateway shine
And watchest Nowogrodek's pinnacle!
As Thou didst heal me by a miracle
[For when my weeping mother sought Thy power,
I raised my dying eyes, and in that hour
My strength returned, and to Thy shrine I trod
For life restored to offer thanks to God],
So by a miracle Thou 'lt bring us home."
—Pan Tadeusz, Adam Mickiewicz
translated by Kenneth R. MacKenzie
O magnificent lovely Star
Mary of Czestochowa,
We have refuge in thee, O Mary
O dear Mary, Mary
O dear Mary, Mary.

Intercede Thou for us
Lady of Czestochowa, Mary,
Your beloved Son have mercy on us,
Have mercy on us
Have mercy on us.

Oh, Thou Lady of Angels
Mary of Czestochowa,
Help us, help us, we beg Thee, help us
To come where your Son does live!
To come where your Son does live!
—Our Lady of Czestochowa
The Summit Lighthouse Book of Songs, No. 108
 

" . . . What counts is your vision of the Mother. And this has somewhat to do with your own Selfhood. The only Mother you can really see is the Mother that you can be . . . Remember the principle of the teaching and the path of the Mother: Not alone in the goal but in the ritual of attaining the goal is the diamond forged, is the lesson appreciated, is the teacher loved!

"Did you know that I also pray the rosary daily and perpetually as my adoration unto the Omega Light and Her Person? Thus, there is a transfer when you say to me, 'Hail Mary, full of grace.' And the words are simultaneous. And I say, 'Hail Mother Ray, Omega Light and Person.'

" . . . I return to Poland where I keep the vigil . . . My image in Poland arcs with my image in Mexico City—and all other shrines that I have blessed increase the Mother flame in the earth."
Mother Mary
(for audio click here)

 

The fifth- or sixth-century painting of ‘the Queen of Poland’ is one of the world’s oldest portraits of the Virgin and Child. It is believed to have been painted by St. Luke on the top of a cypress table. Legend has it that the table, built by St. Joseph, was used by the Holy Family in Nazareth. It is also believed that Mother Mary sat for the portrait at the request of early Christians.

The icon of Our Lady of Czestochowa, also known as the BLACK MADONNA, is enshrined on Jasna Gora (Hill of Light), above the city of Czestochowa in South Central Poland. For centuries the Polish people have honored Mary the Mother of God and her divine Son in this holy place.

The Miraculous Picture of Our Lady of Czestochowa is one of the oldest of the Blessed Virgin in the world. Science traces the picture's origins to the 5th or 6th century A.D. The dark coloring on the faces and hands is characteristic of pictures painted during this period.

But prior to the year 1382, the history of the Miraculous Picture of Our Lady of Czestochowa is shrouded in legend and tradition.

In the year 326 St. Helen, the mother of Constantine the Great, located the Sacred Picture in Jerusalem and brought it back to Constantinople where it remained for centuries venerated by the emperor's family.

The Holy Picture reached Southern Poland as part of a dowry in a marriage between royal families from Constantinople and Kiev.

In 1430 a devastating attack on the Polish Shrine resulted in tragic losses and the damaging of the holy picture. To this very day, despite the attempts to repair the damage, the scars on the face of the Virgin Mary are still visible.

In the year 1382, the Pauline Fathers were entrusted with the guarding of the Miraculous Painting of Our Lady of Czestochowa.

Ladislaus, Prince of Opole and regent for Louis the Great in Poland, had found the Sacred Picture in the castle of Belz during the war with Ruthen Lords. Seeking a more suitable place for the Venerable Image of the Blessed Mother, he brought the picture to Czestochowa, a small town in central Poland. Members of the Order of St. Paul the First Hermit (the Pauline Fathers) were invited to come from Hungary to settle in Czestochowa as protectors of the revered picture.

Mary, who holds her child tenderly in her hands, bears two scars on her cheek which were inflicted by the swords of invading soldiers in the fifteenth century. Her face is blackened by fire from battles for the control of Poland. The icon carries the signs of Poland's struggles and its victories over its foes.

The establishment of the Monastery and Shrine in Czestochowa began with a small wooden church. Subsequent development and expansion resulted in the construction of the present day basilica and defense walls which surround the sacred buildings (1632-48).

Under the heroic leadership of the Prior of the Monastery, Father Augustine Kordecki, the Shrine withstood the attacks of the Swedish invasion of 1655. This great victory proved to be a tremendous boost to the morale of the entire Polish nation.

In 1656 King Jan Casimir took a solemn vow proclaiming the Mother of God to be the "Queen of the Polish Crown" and the Shrine of Jasna Gora to be the "Mount of Victory" and a spiritual capital of Poland.

During the years of communist domination of Poland (1945-1981) the shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa became the rallying point for the Polish people, persecuted for their Christian faith.


[Poles] "are fervent seventh-ray people. They have come to earth with the charge of Sanat Kumara to maintain the light of freedom. Voluntarily they went under the enslavement of the Soviet boot for the very purpose of proving that free hearts will never say die.

" . . . I recall you to the great truth that there is a line where light and darkness must meet. And the line may very well be the line of the people of Poland because . . . they are the most daring and intrepid chelas of my heart.

"Realize the great truth, then—and do not close your eyes, do not close your eyes!—that there are people upon earth, namely the Polish people, who will prove to the world, as Jesus Christ did, that it is better for some to give a public example of the crucifixion than for all to go down beneath the boot of World Communism."
Saint Germain


"The banner of the Lord of the World and of the Lord Jesus Christ—these are seen as standards while the battle cry is heard on earth and while giants among men, even the sons of God, stand in Poland—the figure of a man, the Son of man himself.

"Take, then, the lesson of Poland as an archetypal pattern for every nation upon earth. For every nation, the United States not excluded, must pass through this very fiery trial. The labor unions must be purged, the economy and the government must be purged—not in the fashion of Joseph Stalin, but in the fashion of the sacred fire . . .

"For the day of the fierceness and the wrath of The Word of God is yet to come. I pray you will be ready and you will have prepared this people, as the people of Poland have been prepared through my own heart and their devotion to it."

Mother Mary
(for audio click here)
The Solidarity Madonna The Gdansk Shipyard Madonna
Regina Poloniae
Translation for 140 languages by ALS


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lack diacritics due to certain technical limitations.

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