June 25, 2019
We were picked up at our hotel at abut 8:00 AM for a 2 1/2 hour drive to Częstochowa, home of Poland's most famous icon, the Black Madonna.
The icon is housed in a chapel within the basilica anchoring the Jasna Gora Monastery, which was founded in 1382 by Pauline monks from Hungary. Because of her presence in the monastery, Częstochowa is the third largest Catholic pilgrimage site in the world.
A 350-foot-tall bell tower dominates the approach.
"Totus tuus" is Latin for "All yours." Pope John Paul II's motto was "All yours, Mary!"
Side chapels protrude from the side of the basilica.
We were herded into a waiting room where we were assigned to a group of four other English-speaking tourists and to Father Foster Muir, one of the Pauline monks. He was Scottish and had a delightful accent. We found him to be very knowledgeable and often quite funny. He pointed out that we were lucky not to have come on a day like the one shown in this photograph that was hanging on the wall. That's a lot of people. Father Muir said that many poles walk to Częstochowa from Warsaw or Krakow, the two cities Częstochowa lies more or less half-way between. (Krakow is about 92 miles away, and Warsaw is about 135 miles away.) It is typically a nine-day journey.
We were picked up at our hotel at abut 8:00 AM for a 2 1/2 hour drive to Częstochowa, home of Poland's most famous icon, the Black Madonna.
The icon is housed in a chapel within the basilica anchoring the Jasna Gora Monastery, which was founded in 1382 by Pauline monks from Hungary. Because of her presence in the monastery, Częstochowa is the third largest Catholic pilgrimage site in the world.
A 350-foot-tall bell tower dominates the approach.
"Totus tuus" is Latin for "All yours." Pope John Paul II's motto was "All yours, Mary!"
Side chapels protrude from the side of the basilica.
We were herded into a waiting room where we were assigned to a group of four other English-speaking tourists and to Father Foster Muir, one of the Pauline monks. He was Scottish and had a delightful accent. We found him to be very knowledgeable and often quite funny. He pointed out that we were lucky not to have come on a day like the one shown in this photograph that was hanging on the wall. That's a lot of people. Father Muir said that many poles walk to Częstochowa from Warsaw or Krakow, the two cities Częstochowa lies more or less half-way between. (Krakow is about 92 miles away, and Warsaw is about 135 miles away.) It is typically a nine-day journey.
