Our Lady of Czestochowa Queen of Poland

At the time of the major Swedish invasions in Poland (1655) (...) when all seemed lost and the king and his army had been routed, the monks of Yasna Gora faced up to the challenge. They resolved not to surrender, and the powerful Swedish army never managed to dislodge the few Polish monks cooped up in an old monastery. The spiritual resistance that held sway was such that the Swedes were soon forced to retire. This unbelievable victory was ascribed to Our Lady, whose famous icon of the Black Virgin looked down upon the monastery of Yasna Gora. King John Casimir proclaimed the Mother of God to be Queen of the Kingdom of Poland. Since that time, the sanctuary in Yasna Gora is where the whole of Polish history has been summed up: "You need to listen to the pulse of this place to feel how the heart of the nation beats in the heart of Mary" (John Paul II, June 4, 1979).