More than a million pilgrims are drawn each year to Czestochowa in south-central Poland by the renowned icon Our Lady of Czestochowa, also known as the Black Madonna.
The wooden icon is said to have miraculous powers and has been the object of veneration for centuries. It was brought to Czestochowa in 1382 by Prince Wladyslaw of Opole from his castle in Belz in the Ukraine. The prince founded a monastery of Paulite monks to care for the icon, and the original shrine church on Jasna Góra (Bright Hill) was built in 1386.
According to tradition, the icon was painted by Saint Luke on a tablet manufactured by Saint Joseph for the Holy Family, was taken from Jerusalem to Constantinople, and in the late tenth century was given to Princess Anna, wife of Vladimir of Kiev.
Soon after its arrival in Czestochowa, the icon known as the Black Madonna because the faces and hands of the Virgin and Child are dark--began attracting pilgrims. Cuts on the Virgin’s right cheek are said to have resulted from desecration in 1430 by thieves who became enraged when they found the icon becoming heavier and heavier as they tried to carry it away. Another version of the legend says that a Hussite soldier, unable to dislodge the picture, slashed the face with his sword, whereupon blood issued from the wounds.
