"I, your Merciful Mother, want to protect and save you!"

One day in May 1850 in Lichen, Poland (60 km from Poznan), in the Gräblin forest, a shepherd named Nicholas Sikatka saw "a lady come down from the sky, dressed in white and gold, wearing a diamond-studded veil and a sparkling crown. The apparition showed him a rosary she held in her hands, then pointed to the image of a white eagle—the symbol of the Kingdom of Poland—embroidered on the front of her dress over her heart.

"I am the Sorrowful Queen of Poland," she said. "I have come to console and warn my poor children! ... I am here to take my children out of their inner misery, to awaken courage and charity in their unhappy hearts, and to offer them a future of peace and freedom.” She then joined her hands, raised her eyes to the sky and disappeared in a great light dazzling light.

The Virgin appeared again many times during the following days. One day she said to Nicholas: "The people must do penance for all their sins! ... Drunkenness and debauchery offend Jesus and blasphemies offend his Divine Majesty! What hurts my heart the most is the contempt people have for God.”

On August 13, 1850, Nicholas saw the Virgin one last time. "A severe punishment will fall upon you," she declared. "I, your Merciful Mother, want to protect and save you! You should display an icon of me here and come to pray before this source of grace and peace."

But Nicholas was taken prisoner by the Prussians. It was not until September 29, 1852, that an icon of the Virgin Mary was hung on a pine-tree at the site of the apparitions. People sick with cholera were healed through her intercession. The diocesan bishop organized a religious procession. Since the Prussians forbade all public Catholic demonstrations, the icon was hidden until 1945. On August 15, 1966, Primate of Poland Stefan Wyszynski was finally able to canonically crown the icon with 130,000 faithful in attendance.

Father René Laurentin

Dictionnaire des Apparitions - Fayard 2006