Page 18 - LOTN Spring Issue 52 2023

FAITH AND CULTURE

Mary, Queen of Poland

BY LIDIA KONAR

A few years ago, a Scotswoman asked me whether we still
have kings in Poland. “Well, the last Polish king was forced to
abdicate in 1795 when Poland was invaded by its neighbours,”
I replied quickly, and then added, “But we still have a queen,
Holy Mary.” My interlocutor looked at me in disbelief. “Yes, it's
true. We Poles call her the Queen of Poland. “The face of that
lady expressed considerable surprise and, out of politeness, she
listened to the rest of my story about the history of Poland, and
how Mary came to be our Queen. However, for her it was just a
lovely fairy tale rather than a historical fact.
Every year, on May 3, in Poland and everywhere in the world
where Polish Catholics live, the Feast of Mary, Queen of Poland,
is celebrated. It is worth pausing here to reflect on our Polish
history. Holy Mother Mary was already venerated by the Polish
nation in the Middle Ages. Indeed, just after the introduction
of Christianity to Poland in 966, the first church dedicated to
the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary was consecrated in
the Polish capital of Gniezno. Some time later the first King
of Poland, Boleslaw I the Brave (Chrobry) (967-1025), also
erected a church dedicated to the Mother of God in another
Polish town called Sandomierz. Our Lady of Częstochowa
Duke Wladyslaw I (Herman) (1044-1102), the great-grandson
of Boleslaw I the Brave, claimed that he was miraculously cured evotion to Mary, the Mother of God has had a
by Our Lady, so he built the Church of the Visitation of the special place in the Catholic faith in Poland. The
Blessed Virgin Mary in Kraków as a votive offering. Another Dmost important Polish Marian shrine is that of Our
Polish King, Sigismund I the Old (1467-1548) erected a chapel Lady of Częstochowa at the Monastery of Jasna Góra
(the Sigismund's Chapel) in Wawel Cathedral in Kraków, in (Bright Mountain).
honour of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The icon of Our Lady of Częstochowa has been intimately
The Mother of God was first named the Queen of Poland associated with Poland for the past 600 years. Its history,
in the 16th century, in a work of the Polish Renaissance poet, before it arrived in Poland, is shrouded in numerous
Grzegorz of Sambor (circa. 1523-1573), entitled “Czestochowa”, legends that trace the icon's origin to Luke the Evangelist,
in which he described the history of the miraculous icon of Our
Lady of Częstochowa, frequently called the “Black Madonna”. who painted it on a cedar table top from the house of the
On April 1, 1656, in the Cathedral of Lviv, king John II Casimir Holy Family. The same legend holds that the painting was
Vasa (1609-1672), chose Mary as the Queen of Poland, after a discovered in Jerusalem in 326 by Helena, who brought it
famous victory over the Swedes and the miraculous defence of back to Constantinople and presented it to her son, the
Jasna Góra Monastery in Częstochowa, which were attributed Emperor Constantine the Great.
to the intercession of Mary. In turn, at the battle of Vienna, The oldest documents from Jasna Góra state that the
the Polish King, John III Sobieski (1629-1696), led a Christian picture travelled from Constantinople to Belz, a city in
relief force which repulsed the army of Mehmed IV, saving Western Ukraine close to the Polish border. Eventually, it
Western Europe from seemingly inevitable Muslim conqueSt came into the possession of Władysław Opolczyk, Duke of
He attributed this victory to Holy Mary’s intercession and
consequently requested Pope Innocent XI (1676-1689) to Opole, and adviser to Louis of Anjou, King of Poland and
make September 12, the date of the battle, the Feast of the Holy Hungary when the town was incorporated into the Polish
Name of Mary. The Pope extended this feast day to the whole kingdom. A famous story tells that in late August 1384,
church. Later, a Church of the Holy Name of Mary was built Władysław was passing Częstochowa with the picture
in Rome. Pope Innocent XI hailed Sobieski as the “Saviour of when his horses refused to go on. He was advised in a
Vienna and Western European civilization”. dream to leave the icon at Jasna Góra.
Holy Mary was also the patroness of the Polish knighthood. In 1430 the icon was demaged in a sacrilegious attack.
Their famous battle song, and a patriotic anthem was It was carefully restored and repaired, but the marks left
“Bogurodzica” (The Mother of God). Polish knights chanted by the sword slashes could not be completely removed
that hymn in 1410 before the Battle of Grunwald, which was
one of the biggest battles in medieval Europe, and they won! and two scars can still be seen on the right check of the
That song also accompanied the coronation ceremonies of the Madonna.
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