Today I am going to start of today’s blog entry with a joke:
How do you make holy water?
You boil the hell out of it.
I cannot take credit for being so clever. Between Warsaw and Krakow I made two stops. The first stop was at Our Lady of Czestochowa. Our Lady of Czestochowa is a holy site that many Polish pilgrims come to for forgiveness and blessings. It was a beautiful building. The building contained the Black Madonna. This holy icon is very important to the Polish people. It is thought that St. Luke the evangelist painted it. It has been in the care of the Pauline monks at Czestochowa since 1382. Polish people take their religion seriously; it is not uncommon for the average church to havesix services daily (and all of them packed). Our Lady of Czestochowa is a pilgramage site for Poles. As a result, you can imagine how busy this place was when I was there.
The most interesting artifacts I thought the church had were two rosaries that were made in concentration camps out of bread crumb and string. Sadly, I was unable to take a picture; no photos were allowed. If you are ever in Jasna Gora, Poland, make sure to see the rosaries and ask for Father Simon Steanowicz to be your docent; he was hilarious.
Our Lady of Czestochowa on PhotoPeach
HI Brandon,
ReplyDeleteJust got wind of your adventure. What a great way to spend your summer vaca. Everything is so interesting. Why is the painting called the "Balck Madonna"? If she is painted black, why?
Safe travels,
Mary Ann Correa
Mary Ann,
ReplyDeleteThere are two possible reasons. Given the age of the item, she is thought to have turned black with age. St. Luke is also thought to have painted it, so it is a depiction of Mary as he saw her. He choose the colors and she may have had a darker skin color than we typically associate with Mary. Thanks for responding!
My grandmother told an old Polish tale about the Black Madonna - that it was from smoke due to the number of candles that were lit in front of the painting. The candles were lit as part of a prayer offering.
ReplyDeleteThere is a Black Madonna copy behind many rows of candles in a church near my home that is attended by many Polish people.
Pat Macey