Our Lady of Czestochowa (1) Queen of Poland

At the time of the great Swedish invasions (1655), which in popular memory is known as "the Swedish deluge", when all seemed lost and the king and his army had been routed, it was the monks of Jasna Gora who stood up.

They were determined not to submit, and the mighty Swedish army was never able to overcome these few Polish monks huddled in an old monastery. Such was the spiritual resistance organized around the monastery that the Swedes were soon forced to withdraw. 

The incredible victory was attributed to the Virgin Mary, whose famous icon of the Black Madonna was enthroned in the monastery of Jasna Gora. King John Casimir proclaimed the Mother of God Queen of the Kingdom of Poland. Since that time, the shrine of Jasna Gora has been the place where Polish history is encapsulated, and all the nation's great events are linked to it in one way or another: "you must listen to this place to feel how the heart of the nation beats in the heart of its Mother."

Pope John Paul II

June 4, 1979, on the first official visit of his pontificate to Poland

(1) The Jasna Góra Monastery in Częstochowa, Poland, houses the precious image of the Black Madonna of Częstochowa