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Our Lady of Czestochowa, Regina Poloniae, Queen of Poland, Black Madonna

The icon to the left was written* by my hand. This style of icon is called hodegetria and means, "She who shows the way" because she is pointing to her son, the Christ. The infant Christ is holding his right hand in a blessing gesture. This icon is know by several names. But here, I will call her Our Lady of Czestochowa. This has become the most revered icon in Poland and is currently housed in the monastery at Jasna Gora (Bright Mountain).

 

Its story is full of legends and miracles. One of the oldest documents kept at Jasna Gora says that the icon came from Jerusalem, through Constantinople to Belz, just outside of Lviv in present day Ukraine near the Polish border. It finally reached Czestochowa in August 1382.

 

The two scars on the right cheek are believed to have been made by a Hussite who was one of many that stormed the monastery in 1430.  The icon was place on a wagon but legend says the horses refused to move. One of the Hussites threw the icon on the ground and cut the cheek twice. He then fell to the ground dead.

 

Over the years there have been attempts to repair the slashes but they eventually reappear. This could be due to the original painting having been made by the encaustic method. The encaustic method uses melted beeswax with a pigment.

 

The theory for the golden fluer-de-lis on Mary's veil is that the icon spent some time in Hungary during the reign of either Charles I of Hungary and/or Louis the Great, kings of the Hungarian branch of the Angevin dynasty.

 

*Tranditionalists say that icons are "written" not painted. Also, icons are written by God using the iconographer as an instrument only. Therefore, I do not take credit for creating the icon but my hand was the tool that God used.

 

 

Works Cited

 

http://www.marypages.com/Czestochowa.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Madonna_of_Cz%C4%99stochowa

http://catholictradition.org/Mary/czesto.htm

 

Ouspensky, Leonid. The Meaning of Icons. St Vladimir's Seminary Press: Crestwood 1989

 

 

 

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