Our Lady of Czestochowa

Marian Advocation of Doylestown (Pennsylvania)

La devoción de Our Lady of Częstochowa born of the famous venerated icon in the shrine of Holy Mountainin Poland, where tradition identifies it as one of the country's oldest and most loved Marian images; the safe documentary history already places it in Poland since 1384when she was entrusted to the Paulines and began her veneration in Częstochowa. Around this image a strong religious and national consciousness was formed over time, until it was proclaimed. Queen of Poland by King John II Casimiro in 1656, in a historical context marked by the war against the Swedish invasion.

Main data

Origin and history

La devoción de Our Lady of Częstochowa born of the famous venerated icon in the shrine of Holy Mountainin Poland, where tradition identifies it as one of the country's oldest and most loved Marian images; the safe documentary history already places it in Poland since 1384when she was entrusted to the Paulines and began her veneration in Częstochowa. Around this image a strong religious and national consciousness was formed over time, until it was proclaimed. Queen of Poland by King John II Casimiro in 1656, in a historical context marked by the war against the Swedish invasion.

In the case of the shrine of Doylestown, Pensilvaniathe documented history indicates that it was established as a pilgrimage center by Polish immigrants and that it is attended by the gradual parents since the decade of 1950It is therefore known as the “American Czestochowa”. This sanctuary arose precisely to keep alive in the United States the devotion to the Virgin of Jasna Gira among the Polish diaspora.

The image and the sanctuary

The invocation is represented by a icon Marian, not a sculpture, known by tradition as the Virgen Negra de Częstochowa; Jasna Góra's image is famous for its dark features, por los metal coatings that leave visible only the face and hands, and by the scarring on the right cheek, associated with historical episodes of violence against the icon. In popular devotion and many reproductions, Mary appears to support the Child Jesus, with a very characteristic Byzantine iconography.

En Doylestown se venera una replica of that image in the National Shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowaa national Catholic sanctuary with a strong Polish identity, popularly known as the “Czech americana”. The sources consulted present it as a great pilgrimage center, but is not known here a certain mention to be a minor basilica; if its condition of National sanctuary.

Sponsorship and coronation

The advocation of Częstochowa is above all patronage of Poland and national religious symbol of the Polish people. In the area of Doylestown, its sanctuary functions as a reference centre for Polish Catholics in the United States, but no consta a civic or diocesan patronage specific to the town of Doylestown based on the sources consulted.

On the canonical coronation, for the original image of Jasna Góra, the pontifical coronation of 1717by order of the Pope Clemente XI. For the venerated replica at Doylestown, does not contain a documented canonical coronation in the sources provided.

Party and devotion

La main party associated with this advocation is the 26 August. Around that date and throughout the year, pilgrimages are organized to the Doylestown shrine, which the Catholic press and other sources describe as a place of special roots for the Polish community in the United States.

Devotion has a marked character pilgrim and community: not only does it come to venerate the image, but also to maintain the religious and cultural memory of Polish emigration. The expression “American Czestochowa” This function is well summarized: a sanctuary that prolonges, on American soil, the spirituality of Jasna Góra.

Link to the Rosary

Although in the sources consulted no is a unique historical link of this advocation with a concordacy or formula of the Rosary, the relationship is very natural within the Marian Catholic spirituality: the Rosary contemplates the mysteries of Christ with Mary, and sanctuaries such as that of Częstochowa are often places where this prayer is prayed with special intensity. In this case, devotion to Our Lady of Częstochowa is perfectly integrated into the piety of the Rosary for its contemplative, Marian and pilgrim character, very specific to the great sanctuaries of the Church.