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Father V @father_rmv - Today Polish people around the world celebrate the feast of Our Lady of Częstochowa (in Polish Najświętszej Maryi Panny Częstochowskiej).
The image of Our Lady of Częstochowa depicts Mary holding the Christ Child, believed to be painted by St. Luke the Evangelist, enshrined at the Jasna Góra Monastery in Częstochowa, Poland. While mystery surrounds the early history of the icon of Our Lady of Częstochowa, legend holds that St. Luke is believed to have used a tabletop from a table built by the carpenter Jesus. It was while Luke was painting this image of Mary that she told him about the events in the life of Jesus that he eventually used in his Gospel.
The legend continues that when St. Helena went to Jerusalem to search for the true cross in 326 AD, she happened upon this portrait of Our Lady. She gave it to her son, Constantine, who had a shrine built to house it. In a critical battle with the Saracens, the portrait was displayed from the walls of Constantinople and the Saracens were subsequently routed.
The portrait was credited with saving the city. The painting was eventually owned by Charlemagne who subsequently presented the painting to Prince Leo of Ruthenia (northwest Hungary). It remained at the royal palace in Ruthenia until an invasion occurred in the eleventh century. The king prayed to Our Lady to aid his small army and as a result of this prayer a darkness overcame the enemy troops who, in their confusion, began attacking one another. Ruthenia was saved as a result of this intervention by Our Lady. In the Fourteenth Century, it was transferred to the Mount of Light (Jasna Góra) in Poland in response to a request made in a dream of Prince Ladislaus of Opole (in Polish Władysław Opolczyk).
The legendary history becomes better documented with the painting's ownership by Prince Ladislaus. In 1382 invading Tartars attacked the Prince's fortress at Belz. In this attack one of the Tartar arrows hit the painting and lodged in the throat of the Madonna. The Prince, fearing that he and the famous painting might fall to the Tartars, fled in the night finally stopping in the town of Częstochowa, where the painting was installed in a small church. The Prince subsequently had a Pauline monastery and church built to ensure the painting's safety. In 1430, the Hussites overran the monastery and attempted to take the portrait. One of the looters twice struck the painting with his sword but before he could strike another blow he fell to the floor writhing in agony and died. Both the sword cuts and the arrow wound are still visible in the painting.
Later, in 1655, Poland was almost entirely overrun by the forces of Sweden's King Charles X. Only the area around the monastery remained unconquered. The monks of the monastery successfully defended the portrait against a forty day siege and eventually all of Poland was able to drive out the invaders. After this remarkable turn of events, the Lady of Częstochowa became the symbol of Polish national unity and was crowned Queen of Poland. King Jan Casimir placed the country under the protection of the Blessed Mother, and in 1656 made 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 for Poland.
In more recent history, after the partition of Poland between Austria, Prussia, and Russia the Polish people, although divided into three different states under foreign domination, remained undivided in their faithfulness to Mary, Queen of Poland. In every Polish church there was and there is still a reproduction of the Madonna of Częstochowa. When in 1919 Poland regained its independence the newly organized Soviet Russian Red Army immediately invaded the unified country and again the whole of Poland had recourse to its protectress. Thread
https://x.com/father_rmv/status/1960353303738429503
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