The virgin on the hill of light

Gerard Noel on the unforgettable shrine said to
contain a tablet fashioned by St Joseph himself
POLAND IS UNDOUBTEDLY one of the most satisfying countries to visit in Europe today. Someone once said that in Warsaw even the dustbins are romantic: they contain not rubbish but happy memories of romance and adventure.
But poor old Poland! It has suffered more from foreign invasions than any other European country. Many of these were extensive and disastrous while others were little more than mere incursions, some of them quite friendly.
So it was, in 1382 that the colourful Prince Ladislaus Opolszyk journeyed to Czestochowa on the river Warta from his remote castle at Belz in the Ukraine. His ties with the House of Anjou in Naples, which had produced several saints, may have accounted for his mysticism and devotion to the Blessed Virgin.
In his possession at Belz was a wooden portrait, one day to become famous as Our Lady of Czestochowa. It is, in fact, the country's most famous icon and is sumptuously housed on the Jasna Gora — meaning hill of light — above the city. The basilica containing it has become the best known shrine in central Europe and a highly popular place of pilgrimage.
To see this relic for the first time is an inevitably moving experience. It is so unusual, almost ethereal, in appearance as to make strangely credible the highly curious history attached to it.
Few relics in Christendom claim an Adev provenance, back in fact to the time of Jesus himself. St Joseph, if the meagre facts about him are closely scrutinised, was more than a mere simple carpenter or joiner. He must have been a craftsman of some artistry, and is thought to have made ornaments for his family.
One of these was a tablet which caught the eye of St Luke when, after the death of Jesus, he visited Jesus' Mother Miriam, as she was still commonly called. It was in these days that Luke supposedly heard from the Lord's Mother the account of his birth and early life with which his Gospel opens. (Some say that Luke visited the Holy Family long before this, and knew Jesus as a boy.) Luke was an artist himself and on this particular tablet, originally manufactured by St Joseph, he painted a portrait of Jesus and his Mother. It was, according to tradition, found in Jerusalem many years later and brought to Constantinople, being given in about the year 988 to Princess Anna, the wife of Vladimir of Kiev, whence it found its way to Belz. If the tradition is true, the relic is the only original one of its kind — copies being made later — allegedly to exist.
It was not until 1925 that a thorough examination of the icon was made, in the course of its extensive restoration. This included careful inspection of the parts of the relic previously encased in precious metals. Until this time only the smokeblackened faces of the Virgin and Child had been visible.
The romantic alleged origins of the icon, from the times of Jesus, were naturally questioned by historians and scholars. They concluded that it was probably of 9th century Greek or Greek-Italian origin, with signs of 13th century overpaintings.
But naturally the original legend would not die. It was strengthened, in fact, after 1430 when robbers, thought to be Hussites, desecrated the relic, accounting for the cuts, still plainly visible, on Our Lady's right cheek. The scholars who wrote about it, moreover, were aware that many icons had been attributed to Luke. The origins of the tradition attaching to this particular one are obscure, though a church called Hodegorin in Constantinople seems to have the best claim to early possession of the icon. The latter in turn, became the prototype of many others. These copies themselves became the object of loyal and pious reverence.
A visit to Czestochowa is an unforgettable experience. A stream of pilgrimages over the year had turned it into a prosperous town, much industrialised in modern times. It now attracts more than a million pilgrims a year and it is, of course, a shrine particularly dear to the heart of our Polish Pope.