Black Madonna

Our Lady of Czestochowa

According to the legend, St. Luke painted a portrait of the
Blessed Virgin on the table made by Jesus Himself when He
was an apprentice carpenter under the paternal guidance of

St. Joseph.
After the Crucifixion, this table was brought to
Jerusalem; when the Holy City had fallen to
the Romans the disciples kept it hidden
during their wanderings. It was St. Helena,
mother of Constantine the Great, who while
searching for the Holy Cross found the picture
of the Mother of Christ and took it to
Constantinople.
In the troublesome eighth century the picture was again
in great danger and was carried to the wilderness to
be hidden in remote places like the forests of Belsk, in
Eastern Poland
There it was confided to the custody of the
monks of St. Paul of the Desert who have
guarded it down to the present day.
 During the wars with the Swedes in the seventeenth
century Czestochowa was besieged by the whole
Swedish army for more than six weeks, but the army of
the enemy was defeated and the invader driven from
Polish soil.
Czestochowa again defended Polish unity and
independence. The following year, 1656, the
Holy Virgin was acclaimed Queen of Poland
and Czestochowa became the spiritual
capital of the nation
King Sobieski that saved Vienna in 1683 and
the West. Before Sobieski and his army
undertook their crusade he and his knights
gathered at Czestochowa and dedicated
themselves to their Mother in Heaven.
Because of this painting, Jasna Góra became
Poland's most famous sanctuary among the
numerous sites to Marian devotion throughout
the country
Our Lady's right cheek is marked by two
parallel slashes
The legend concerning the two scars
on the Black Madonnna's right
cheek is that a Hussite robber drew
his sword upon the image and
inflicted two deep strikes. When the
robber tried to inflict a third strike,
he fell to the ground in agony until
his death. Despite past attempts to
repair these scars, they had always
reappeared.
The painting displays a traditional from
the icons of Eastern Orthodoxy
Because of the Black Madonna, Częstochowa is regarded
as the holiest city in Poland
Black Madonna dresses