Word: czestochowa
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Walesa had expected to meet the Pope on Sunday in Czestochowa, where John Paul celebrated the 600th anniversary of the Black Madonna, Poland's holiest religious painting. But Walesa stood by his telephone in Gdansk all day waiting for the summons that did not come...
...Pope's presence. At curbsides or huddled together in windows or on balconies, their faces reflected sullen amazement, fearful wonder and, finally, bittersweet joy. In an extraordinary pageant of the spirit, they gathered a million strong for Mass in a Warsaw stadium. When John Paul went to Czestochowa a million more covered the grassy slopes around the Jasna Gora monastery. Some Poles held banners in red and white, indiscriminately mixing religion and politics in messages such as HOPE-SOLIDARITY and YOU ARE THE REAL FATHER OF SOLIDARITY. Others laid flowers along the papal path or held up plain wooden...
Difficult months of bargaining preceded the Pope's visit to Poland. John Paul was originally supposed to return home in August 1982 for the celebration at Czestochowa but the military crackdown intervened and Jaruzelski postponed the trip. When the government finally invited the Pope, he asked Jaruzelski to grant a general amnesty. The authorities adamantly refused. Warsaw also balked at including the cities of Gdansk and Lublin in the papal itinerary, fearing that supporters of the banned union, which was particularly strong in those two cities, might use the Pope's visit to stage demonstrations. The Vatican...
...Pope's next stop was Czestochowa, the spiritual highlight of his trip. But the thought of the Black Madonna's "tear-filled and sad" eyes said John Paul moved him to reflect again on Poland's recent troubled history. While a crowd of a million people listened from the open fields and woods below the Jasna Gora shrine, the Pope described the creation of Solidarity in August...
...Poles, the Black Madonna of Czestochowa is far more than an object of Roman Catholic reverence. It is a source of historical continuity, a cause and remembrance of national liberation from foreign enemies, and a fount of miracles. The 4-ft. by 2½-ft. gilt-and-tempera dark-hued portrait of the Virgin Mary and Christ child is laden with gems and silver. By legend, the painting is attributed to St. Luke the Evangelist, and was executed on a table top from the house of Mary, Joseph and Jesus in Nazareth. It origins are unknown, but it may date...