[1' was announced at the beginning of this week that Czestoehowa, Polish " Lourdes " had been captured by the Germans.
Czestochowa lies about 17 miles from the German frontier.
On Saturday night the Warsaw wireless station announced that the sixteenth-century cloisters and other buildings in the city were on fire.
Czestochowa is the Polish national shrine of Our Lady. In the fourteenth century monastery which
dominates the city is venerated the famous picture of Our Lady of Czestochowa, which is reputed to have been painted by St. Luke.
It is not yet known whether the retreating Poles succeeded in saving this national treasure from destruction.
The picture has for centuries been the object of intense veneration throughout Poland, from all quarters of which pilgrims go to visit the shrine in national pilgrimages.
The picture hangs over the high altar in the monastery church, surrounded by crutches, etc., left by pilgrims who have been cured.