The Black Madonna in America: Czestochowa by Doylestown
The spiritual refuge of exiled Poland · Doylestown, Pennsylvania · since 1955
La Polonia que no quiro olvidar
After World War II, hundreds of thousands of Poles who had fought against Nazism and Stalinism found themselves without a homeland to return to: Poland had been left under Soviet rule. Many settled in the United States, joining the already large Polish-American community that since the late 19th century worked in the factories and mines of the north-east. The Pauline father Michael Zembrzuski, aware of the pain of exile, understood that those people needed a spiritual anchor. In 1953 he acquired a land on the outskirts of Doylestown, Pennsylvania, with the intention of building a replica of the Jasna Góra shrine - the luminous hill of Czestochowa, Poland - so that Polish immigrants could veneration the Black Madonna on American soil.
The first Mass and the growth of the sanctuary
On June 26, 1955, the first Mass was held in a simple wooden chapel dedicated to Our Lady of Czestochowa. That same afternoon the first organized pilgrimage came from the parish of San Laurencio in Philadelphia. The chapel was soon insufficient for the flow of pilgrims. During the 1960s and 1970s the great basilica and the buildings of the monastic set were built. The sanctuary houses a reproduction of the famous image of the Black Madonna - an icon of the 14th century with the cheeks marked by two saber scars - and a Polish-American cemetery with monuments to Ignacy Paderewski and the victims of the Katyń massacre.
A bridge between two worlds
The Doylestown shrine became the spiritual and cultural center of Poland in exile during the years of the cold war. Cardinal Karol Wojtyla - future John Paul II - visited him in 1969 and again in 1976, when he travelled with the delegation of Polish bishops to the 41st International Eucharistic Congress of Philadelphia. Elected Pope in October 1978, the American shrine of the Black Madonna remained a symbolic point of reference for its pontificate. The sanctuary organizes every year walking pilgrimages from Chicago - more than 500 kilometres - following the tradition of the pilgrimage to Jasna Gira, which has been held in Poland since the 15th century.
Queen of Poland and comfort of the exiles,
receive under your cloak those who are far from their land
And remind them that in you they always have a home. Amen.