The Black Madonna: Our Lady of Częstochowa
This feast of the ‘Queen of Poland’ is a national holiday in that great nation, with thousands of pilgrims flocking to her shrine at Jazna Gora, where the precious image of Our Lady of Częstochowa is kept and held most dear. There are untold icons and paintings of the Mother of God, just as there are of her Son, but amongst the most ancient and venerable is the one venerated at Poland’s most famous and most visited shrine. I had the privilege of praying before this very image, on my own pilgrimage there, with my own local (Polish) parish of Saint Hedwig’s, in 2015.
It is said that the icon was painted – or ‘written’, in the Eastern terminology – by Saint Luke himself, on a cedar table – a living portrait of the Mother of God. We know for certain that it came eventually from Constantinople in the 15th century, and brought to Poland, where the miraculous intercession of the image – or, more properly, of the one represented therein – was responsible for a miraculous victory during the Second Northern War in 1655, when 70 monks and 180 volunteers held off a force of 4000 invading Swedes for 40 days. And this was when said Swedes were still primarily renowned for their military prowess, rather than for ABBA, IKEA and soft socialism. Thus was saved the image and the shrine against all earthly odds.
The scars on the image derive from 1430, when a band of Hussites – early Czech Protestants – tried to steal the icon, but once it was in the wagon, the horses refused to move. In frustration, one of the Hussites drew his sword, and slashed the image, once, twice, and, before he got a third one in, he fell to the ground and perished in agony.
Through the centuries, untold numbers of pilgrims have made their way to Jazna Gora, including a young Karol Wojtyla, who went there secretly as a seminarian during Nazi occupation, and the Virgin helped guide his own vocation. The Black Madonna continues to intercede mightily for Poland, for the world, for all of us, against all the errors of this age, not least those of socialism and communism in their various insidious guises.
So pray, trust and hope – the world may strike once, twice, but the third time, it will be Our Lady who wins.
Carney’s Amoral Majority
After five defections – euphemistically described as ‘crossing the floor’ – and three by-elections, Mark Carney and his Liberals how have their coveted majority. One wonders what bowls of pottage were offered in back-room deals. In the archaic monarchical system that is the Dominion of Canada, this majority allows the newly-minted Prime Minister to rule[…]Continue reading→
Saint Kateri , Canada’s Protectress
This was the title given to Saint Kateri Tekakwitha, by Pope Benedict XVI, when he canonized her on October 28th, 2012, along with six others, in Saint Peter’ Square (she had been beatified by Pope John Paul II back in 1980). With Saint Joseph as our protector, along with the Canadian martyrs, we seem to[…]Continue reading→
A Tale of Two Benedicts
A grace-filled Holy Week to all our readers! As we await and prepare for the Resurrection about to dawn upon us, we might keep in mind two Benedicts: Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, requiescat in pace, elected on this day in 2005; and today’s commemoration of the mystic pilgrim, Benedict Joseph Labre, who died on this[…]Continue reading→
My Name is Bernadette
April 16th is a propitious day, for besides the anniversary of Father de Valk’s death, who founded Catholic Insight in its print form decades ago, and the commemoration of the ‘two Benedicts’, mentioned in accompanying posts, today we also recall Saint Bernadette Soubirous, the young visionary to whom the Virgin Mary appeared numerous times at[…]Continue reading→
Saint Lydwina of Schiedam and Suffering Joyfully
Saint Lydwina of Schiedam (1380 – 1433) was one of the countless and glorious ‘victim souls’ in the history of the Church, those whose lives are filled with suffering, often of an unimaginable intensity, but who suffer joyfully. She was a fifteen-year old Dutch girl, out skating one day, when she fell and broke one[…]Continue reading→
The Glorious Martyrdoms of Martin and Maximus
As we enter into Eastertide, we recall on this 13th of April Pope Saint Martin I (+655), one of the noblest, if most tragic, of the successors of Saint Peter. Born in Umbria, Italy, he was of noble lineage, with great intelligence combined with charity and love of the poor and the Church. While still[…]Continue reading→
Canonizing Sister Faustina and Divine Mercy
HOMILY OF THE HOLY FATHER MASS IN ST PETER’S SQUARE FOR THE CANONIZATION OF SR MARY FAUSTINA KOWALSKA Sunday, 30 April 2000 1. “Confitemini Domino quoniam bonus, quoniam in saeculum misericordia eius”; “Give thanks to the Lord for he is good; his steadfast love endures for ever” (Ps 118: 1). So the Church sings on the Octave of[…]Continue reading→
Saint Stanislaus of Szczepanów
We celebrate Saint Stanislaus today (+ April 11, 1079), in light of this Easter Octave, a bishop and martyr who accepted the episcopacy only at the direct order of Pope Alexander II. He proved a wise and courageous leader of his flock, put to death by his own king, Boleslaus, for rebuking the monarch’s ‘immoral[…]Continue reading→
Saint Gemma Galgani
On this April 11th, in 1903 – the same year that the Italian Guiseppe Sarto was elected Pope later that summer as Pius X – a lovely, young Italian woman died, by the name of Gemma Galgani. She lived a brief life of 24 years, as did a number of other young saints, including Pier[…]Continue reading→
An Ideological and Improper Translation
I noticed something odd with the psalm reading at Mass the other day. Our bishops’ conference here in Canada has decreed that the Mass in English – Novus Ordo – use the ‘NRSV’, the ‘New Revised Standard Version’, an ‘updated’ translation of the original RSV, first published in 1952. This ‘new translation’ has the tendency[…]Continue reading→