Mary, Queen of Poland

The Christendom of Europe was at a precarious point in 1683. On September 11th of that year, the Polish king, Jan Sobieski III, bolstered in his courage by God's Spirit, led a charge of 40,000 Poles, accompanied by a small troop of German and Austrian allies, to Vienna to end the Ottoman siege. The Turks had been in control of the city's perimeter and were preparing to breach the wall surrounding it. The Muslim invaders had weakened the city's defensive wall through a system of tunneling beneath it and setting off explosive charges. From the east, the determination of the Polish king to defend Christendom was made available just in time by a successful lobby from Pope Innocent II to the Polish democracy of nobles. Sobieski was given his marching orders and went forth with approval from the Polish government and the prayers and hopes of the Church in Rome. This Roman Catholic-Polish alliance had the effect of dispersing the attempted Muslim invasion of Europe before it could proceed through Austria and northward. This temporal victory  was also a spiritual victory, since it allowed Christianity to remain as Europe's prevailing religion. 

The idea that Christianity's flame in Europe could have been extinguished in the centuries since that battle seems farfetched to those who are of Christian European descent. But this possibility must be considered in imagining a world where this assault upon western civilization was not halted. The subsequent effect this invasion would have had on the demographics of the world religions would have changed western history. As it was, Rome's alliance with Poland has proved beneficial to the survival of the Church and to the spread of Christ's teachings and sacramental graces in the lives of those of European descent. As unthinkable as any other outcome than that may seem now, correlatively it is equally unthinkable to imagine that a nation that so depends on the Mother of God as to officially name her as queen could then or now forget the triune God's mediation in salvation history and thus not go forth confidently and filled with the Holy Spirit in the face of overwhelming odds.

King Sobieski had entrusted his men's and Europe's destiny, and Rome's hope in him, to the confident yet somber eyes of Our Lady of Czestochowa before leading his army into battle. Sobeiski led them forth to a hill overlooking the encampment of Muslim forces where they arrived on the evening of September 11^th. Then, in the predawn hours, going forth with M's on their shields, his forces swept down and prevailed, despite being outnumbered, in some accounts, by 5 to 1. They thus preserved Christendom from Muslim slaughter and forced conversion. The Turks, 200,000 strong, turned and ran, leaving everything behind in their camp. Sobieski's men laid the banners of the defeated Mustapha and his Muslim forces, "the scourge of humanity," at the feet of Our Lady.¹

This victorious battle would be followed by later military defeats and the subsequent partitioning and domination of Poland in the centuries afterwards. Recent history finds a Poland who was dragged into the atrocities of the 20^th century, during which terror and opression was inflicted upon Mary's children by the soulless German and Soviet war machines. Throughout all the temporal defeats, her spiritual solidarity and resolve has upheld the courage of these children of Mary in the face of evil, up until now, when at long last, justice prevails politically. Norman Davies elaborates on her spiritual resolve in  "Heart of Europe, A Short History of Poland":

In 1717...the ceremonial coronation of the Black Madonna of Czestochowa as Queen of Poland indicated the clergy's determination to keep its hold over the faithful despite the country's political decline....In many respects, however, the strength of the Catholic faith was sounder than the fabric of the Church...Under the blows of political disaster, where the Church faltered, the Faith took heart. One might almost believe that Polish Catholicism was preparing itself for the ordeal of the Partitions. Hard times and persecution rallied the Faith, even when the Hierarchy reeled.² 

For the ultimate expression of Polish Catholic devotion we can look to the fruition of Polish Marian piety in the lives and in the enduring spiritual gifts to the Church of her contemporary martyrs, saints, priests, and religious. The list includes St. Faustina, John Paul II  and St. Maximillian Kolbe. These sons and daughters of Poland of the twentieth century, a Poland that was the result of allegiance to Rome in the 10th century, are still influential in the life of the universal Church of today, as she studies and embraces the teaching and devotion they have left. While each of these individuals have given us a unique personal witness, they are all similar in their absolute personal dependence on the will of Christ through obedience to His Mother through the Church. A dependence summed up in the motto of John Paul II: "Totus Tuus"

This motto is also applicable to the collective soul of the Polish nation from which these saints come forth. It is of little surprise then that these saints' and their nation's dependence on Mary traces its roots back to the installation and adoration of Our Lady's iconic image at Czestochowa. This icon visibly placed Mary's  apostolic heart into the emerging Catholic Poland. This heart was later officially recognized, and Poland's faith was solidified, with the crowning of Mary, the "Queen of Heaven" and "Queen of Apostles," as "Queen of Poland" through an official Act of Parliament 

Still today, the most important place of pilgrimage of the Polish Catholic nation is Czestochowa and this miraculous image of Mary known as Our Lady of Czestochowa or the Black Madonna. The land on which this esteemed place of pilgrimage is located, Jasna Gora monastery, the home of the icon, is fittingly situated on high ground. The history of the city dates back to Czestoch, its Slavic founder, who is named in documents from 1220. The city named for him, Czestochowa on the Warta River, is home to the Jasna Gora, the luminous hill, mentioned for the first time in documents dating to 1388. Its name came from the Pauline monks who came to Poland from Hungary. These missionaries took the name from their home friary, "St. Laurence's" monastery in Jasna Gora of Buda.

The Pauline Fathers are an active missionary order, officially known as the Order of St. Paul the First Hermit, their patriarch is St. Paul of Thebes. It is from his story of sustenance on bread and dates delivered by a raven, according to the tradition authored by St. Jerome, that they get the symbols on their coat of arms. Their life is modeled after the Augustinian rule.

The monks arrived by invitation of the Piast prince Ladislaus of Opole in 1382. They were given the small Church dedicated to Our Lady and the surrounding hillside. In 1384 they brought from Belz the miraculous painting of the Mother of God. This painting, tradition claims, was the work of St. Luke, who supposedly used the holy family's table top as his canvas. This, according to modern artistic and archaeological study, must be legend since the work dates back to somewhere between the 6th and 9th century. It is determined to be a Byzantium icon of the "Hodigitria" type. This fact does not detract from the many miraculous events surrounding her veneration and pilgrimages to her.

The image itself has been a sacrificial victim and still bears the wounds of suffering inflicted upon her on April 14, 1430. It was then that a band of Hussites from Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia, raided the monastery, tore the painting down and flung it to the ground, breaking it into three pieces while slashing it with their swords. The attack left the scars that still remain on her face. The painting was restored and the chapel soon became a famous place of pilgrimage. The multitude of pilgrims necessitated the construction of a new larger church.³