Since the election of John Paul II to the papacy, the whole world has come to know of the fervent Catholicism that traditionally has belonged to the people of Poland. At the heart of this love for Christ and His Church rests a profound devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary. And the Polish people are especially devoted to Our Lady of Czestochowa, Queen of Poland.

The monks of St. Paul the Hermit keep the image of Our Lady of Czestochowa at Jasna Gora (the hill of light). The image of the Black Madonna (the most renowned of Europe’s many Black Madonnas) and her Divine Child is ancient and has been the center of Polish Christianity for centuries. Legend attributes the picture to the artistry of St. Luke.

The image was brought to Czestochowa and given to the monks of St. Paul the Hermit in 1384. A Tartar arrow and later sword slashes damaged the image. All attempts to repair the image failed.
Throughout the centuries many miracles have been attributed to the intercession of Our Lady of Czestochowa. And for centuries the Shrine has been a destination of pilgrimages.

In 1717, the Madonna and Child were crowned in the name of the Holy Father. The gold crowns donated by Pope Clement XI were stolen in 1909. In 1910, the Virgin and Child were crowned with gold crowns donated by Pope St. Pius X.

His Holiness, John Paul II, within a year of his elevation to the papacy, made a pilgrimage to Czestochowa (in June of 1979), and spoke of the role of Our Lady of Czestochowa:

Yet if we want to know how the Polish heart interprets this history, we must come here, we must lend an ear to this Shrine, we must perceive the echo of the life of the entire Nation in the heart of its Mother and Queen! And if this heart beats with disquieting tones, if there resound in it the solicitude for and the call to conversion and restrengthening of consciences, we must accept this invitation. It is born of a motherly love which in its way forms the historical processes of the Polish land.

The most recent decades have confirmed and made more intense a close union between the Polish Nation and its Queen. Before the Virgin of Czestochowa there was pronounced the consecration of Poland to the Immaculate Heart of Mary on September 8, 1946. Ten years later, there were renewed at Jasna Gora the vows of King Jan Kazimierz on the 300th anniversary of his proclamation of the Mother of God as The Queen of the Polish Kingdom after a kind of ‘deluge’ [invasion by the Swedes in the 16th century] . . . . And finally in the year of the Millennium (of the Baptism of Poland) on May 3, 1966 here in this place there was proclaimed by the Primate of Poland the act of total servitude to the Mother of God for the freedom of the Church in Poland and in the whole world.

Our Lady of Czestochowa remains a beacon of hope and light not only for Poland and the Poles but also for the entire world.