Over 1,000 celebrate 70 years of Marian devotion, Polish heritage at Pennsylvania shrine

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jul 1, 2025 / 12:07 pm (CNA).

More than 1,000 Catholics with Polish roots gathered for a celebratory jubilee Mass and jubilee concert to honor the 70th anniversary of the National Shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa in the southeastern Pennsylvania borough of Doylestown on Sunday, June 29.

The Marian shrine, located about 25 miles north of Philadelphia, was established in 1955 by a Polish priest from the Order of St. Paul the First Hermit. It was created to honor the Black Madonna — a centuries-old icon of the Blessed Mother that sits in the southern Polish city of Czestochowa and holds a strong devotion from the country’s faithful.

Pauline Fathers from the order continue to operate the shrine. 

“The seeds of the shrine were sowed 70 years ago by a Pauline priest who came carrying the image of Our Lady of Czestochowa with the dream of establishing a shrine,” Archbishop Nelson Pérez of Philadelphia, the main celebrant of the Mass, said in his homily.

“And that community came here carrying Our Lady and sowed those seeds,” he said. “… And so here we are, fast-forward 70 years later, and from that little humble barn chapel … came all of this.”

In 1955, Father Michael Zembrzuski brought a copy of the icon that had been blessed by St. John XXIII to the United States in hopes of creating a chapel, according to the shrine’s website. 

The icon was displayed in a small wooden barn chapel at first, but the Pauline Fathers soon built a much larger complex to support the high number of Polish-American pilgrims visiting the site.

Now the Black Madonna icon, which shows the Blessed Virgin holding the infant Christ with two scars down her right cheek, sits above the altar of the Church. The scars on the original icon in Poland are believed to have been caused by an attack from the Hussites.

During his homily, Pérez spoke about the famous wounds on the icon, noting that “they tried to fix it, you know, in the original image and they could not.”

“They represent the wounds that the Church has received over time, sometimes from the outside; sometimes inflicted upon itself,” he added. “Wounds that leave a mark, and those marks could not be taken away from the image — the face of Our Lady.”

Pérez said the scars are also “an incredible sign of compassion and understanding with you and with me because we too bear wounds.”

“They might not be as visible as those wounds,” he said. “They might be the wounds of our heart and actually you and I know right now in this moment what they are and how powerful at times they can exert energy upon us. The Blessed Mother here stands before us saying: ‘I got them too.’ … And those wounds become part of our own story of salvation.”

A homily in Polish was delivered by Father Arnold Chrapkowski, the superior general of the Pauline order.

A large portion of pilgrims who attended the 70th anniversary celebration were immigrants from Poland and many others were descendents of Polish immigrants.

One pilgrim named Adam, who was raised in Poland and visited the original icon in his home country “many times,” told CNA that it’s important to him to be within driving distance to a shrine honoring Our Lady of Czestochowa.

Adam, who now lives in New York City, said the icon serves as a reminder to “look for support from God and from Our Lady.”

Another pilgrim named Gerome, who grew up in Hamtramck, Michigan (a predominantly Polish city near Detroit), told CNA that copies of the Black Madonna icon were prominently displayed at many of the neighborhood churches.

Gerome, who now lives in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, said he often visits the shrine, especially during Christmas, to hear the “kolęda,” which are Polish Christmas carols. He said he has also visited the original shrine in Poland, which he described as “beautiful” and an important devotion for Polish Catholics.

“People would walk from Warsaw to Our Lady of Czestochowa [for pilgrimages],” he said.

Bishop Krzysztof Józef Nykiel, the regent of the Apostolic Penitentiary of the Apostolic See, also attended the anniversary to concelebrate and read a letter from Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin.

In the letter, Parolin conveyed a message from Pope Leo XIV bestowing his apostolic blessing on participants in the celebration and thanked the Pauline Fathers for their mission in the United States.

“He sends prayerful best wishes to all participating in the Mass commemorating this occasion,” the letter read.

The 70th anniversary Mass was bilingual, in both English and Polish, to accommodate those who primarily speak Polish and the English-speaking pilgrims. During the concert and the Mass, the choir played several Polish Catholic hymns.

One hymn, “Czarna Madonna,” which honors the Blessed Mother and the icon, was sung at the end of Mass. Much of the congregation joined with the choir in singing the Polish-language hymn as Perez and the nine other concelebrating bishops turned to the icon before the closing procession.

“In her arms, you will find peace and shelter from evil,” the song proclaims, according to an English translation. “For she has a tender heart for all her children. And she will take care of you, when you give your heart to her.”

Source: https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/265101/over-1000-celebrate-70-years-of-marian-devotion-polish-heritage-at-pennsylvania-shrine