| Matka Boska
Matka Boska, Our Lady of Czestochowa, is a painting on wood of the Holy Mother
and Child. The tradition is that St. Luke painted it on the top of a cypress wood
table which came from the home of the Holy Family. At the request of the faithful,
Mary sat for the portrait. She was pleased with the finished portrait and said,
"My grace shall accompany it." Venerated
for nearly 300 years while hidden in Jerusalem, the painting was discovered by
St. Helen while she was searching for the True Cross. She brought it back to Constantinople
and presented it to her son, Constantine the Great. Constantine built a chapel
for the portrait and where it remained in for five centuries. Miracle upon miracle
was attributed to the intercession of Mary by persons praying before the portrait.
Eventually it was given as a gift by the Byzantine Emperor to a Ruthenian nobleman
who brought it to Kiev, Poland and installed in the Royal Palace of Belz. It remained
there for 579 years. In
1382 the painting received an injury from invading Tartar's. An arrow pierced
it leaving a scar that is still visible on the neck. Concerned with the safety
of the painting, Prince Ladislaus Opolski decided to move it to one of his castles
in Upper Silesia. On the brow of a hill called Jasna Gora (bright hill) within
a few paces of the town of Czestochowa, the horses drawing the wagon with the
painting stopped. No amount of coaxing or goading could make them go on. Mary
is said to have appeared to Ladislaus and told him this was to be her new home.
The portrait was placed in a chapel and given to the care of the Basilian monks
of the Greek Rite. A few years later, Prince Ladislaus gave it over to the Latin
Rite Hermits of Saint Paul who are still there to this day. Over
time the monastery at Jasna Gora became a monastic fortress and focal point of
Polish nationalism. In 1655 the monastery held out against a mighty Swedish army.
In 1683 it was the Turks and in 1920 the Bolsheviks. As a result, Our Lady of
Czestochowa was crowned as Queen of Poland and her feast day is May 3. At
present a painting of Our Lady of Czestochowa adorns the alter of the Pope's private
chapel at Castol Gondolfo." | 
12mm
diameter 
