The
 beginning
of existence of convent comes to 1382 when Władysław Opolczyk brought
the Pauline Monks from Hungary on the strength of prince’s edict of 9th
April of the same year and he also funded the convent. Jasna Góra
was named by Hungarian Pauline Monks to
commemorate the mother-convent of St. Wawrzyniec in Jasna
Góra in Buda. Two years later
The Holy Icon of Our Blessed Mother and
Infant Jesus was brought from Russia (according to the oldest
tradition Luke the Apostle is the artist who painted it on a piece of
wood coming from the Holy Family’s dining table).
In a short time the monastery became
famous among pilgrims and robbers. After the raid on 14th
April 1430 the Holy Icon was damaged and robbed. The renewal works took
place in Kraków from 1430 to 1434. The increase of pilgrimage movements
became the reason of building the gothic three-aisled Chapel of the
Virgin in 1644. The construction of walls started in 1620 and continued
with short breaks for the next 28 years.
During the Swedish Flood Swedish army of
3000 soldiers tried to overtake the monastery and the sanctuary on 8th
November 1655. After the failure they laid siege to the fortes, which
lasted 40 days. Polish forces were much smaller (170 soldiers, 20
noblemen and 70 monks) and that was why Swedish gen. Burchard von Műler
called the fortes disdainfully ‘poultry-house’. The brave and victorious
fight of the monastery defendants (under the command of Augustyn
Kordecki) did not influence the Swedish Flood. However from the moral
and religious point of view it was priceless.
As it was mentioned in the introduction,
on 1st April 1656 King Jan Kazimierz took the King’s Oath in
the Lvov Cathedral calling the Holy Mother the Queen of Poland. In
August 1665 at the walls Jasna Góra there was a battle between the
winning army commanded by Jan Kazimierz and rebellions under Jerzy
Lubomirski. The Pauline Monks closed the gates at the time of this fight
to eliminate supporting any of the sides as both of them were the
benefactors of convent. For the first few years Jasna Góra was spared
from military actions. However one crucial event took place which
deserved a name of a mark of an epoch. On the basis of Pope Clemens XI’s
edict of 1716 bishop Krzesztof Szembek crowned the Holy Icon in the
following year. It was the first ceremony of this kind which took place
out of Rome. As it is claimed by historians about 200.000 of the
faithful took part in the ceremony.
From 10th September 1770 till 9th
January 1771 members of Bar Confederacy under the command of Kazimierz
Pułaski were successfully defeating the monastery from Russian raids.
However after the failure of Bar Confederacy in 1772 King Stanislaw
Poniatowski pronounced the capitulation of Jasna Góra and surrendered it
to Russians. The period of Russia in power was not the best for the
monastery. They limited the number of monks and robbed land and
sanctuary goods. The September 1909 stands for an example, when the coat
of the Holy Icon and the crowns were robbed. A year later on 22nd
May the renewing crowning took place with the millennium crowns brought
by Pope Pius X. The time of I World War was peaceful for Jasna Góra and
the 20 years between the wars was the time of certain changes in the
monastery itself and the renewal of making the Holy Mother the Queen of
Poland.
During the II World War some of the rooms
in the monastery were occupied by the Nazis army from 3rd
September 1939 till 16th January 1945 and the monks were
constantly supervised. Common pilgrimages were limited. Jasna Góra
became a kind of shelter for the partisans or enemies of the empowered
forces. It was also a time when Nazis expressed their disdainful
attitude towards Marian Devotion and the Holy Icon itself by: e.g.
calling it a ‘Mongolian’.
On 26th August 1953 at presence
of about 1.000.000 of the faithful the Jasna Góra Oath was taken. The
words of the oath were written by Stefan Wyszyński who was imprisoned
then and the faithful were also praying for his regained freedom. On 3rd
May 1966 the central celebration of the millennium of Christianization
of Poland took place.
“There wouldn’t be Polish Pope in the Peter’s Capital
without your faith”
John Paul II
Jasna Góra today
Entering the site of the monastery you go
through the four gates: Lubomirskis (with the Latin words Sub tuum
praesidium), the Holy Mother the Queen of Poland (called in the past
the gate of Stanislaw August Poniatowski), the Holy Mother of Pain and
Jagiellonian (called in the past the Embankment Gate). This way you
enter the main courtyard. Walking down the stairs on the east side
(looking at the tower – on the right) you will reach the stateroom built
in 1927 on the place of the old graveyard. Walking upstairs onto the
embankments you can see:
-
14 bronze statuses
presenting the Stations of the Cross
-
the gate of John
Paul II (called the Enter Gate from 1987) between the stations V and
VI.
-
Following the east
embankment you will reach the vault (where you can see reach
ornamented dishes and liturgical coats
and many objects of
great emotional value like the gifts of the concentration prisoners)
and the Statue of Augustyn Kordecki. Then you will reach the main
courtyard again.
Walking south (towards
the tower) you will pass the hall and then enter (straight forward) the
Holy Mother
 Chapel
and (on the right) the Basilica. In the first one in the central part of
the altar the Holy Icon is situated behind the bar dating back to 1644.
As the faithful claim it is a special place. The
mentioned above
Basilica of the Holy Cross and the Holy Mother of Częstochowa is one of
the most precious sacral buildings in Poland as it was given the title
and the privileges of smaller abbey in 1906 by the Apostle Capital. A
very precious equipment of the Basilica is the ancient benches in the 18th
century stateroom. Going further passing the choir it is worth to see
the 1956 organ. The main altar created between the years 1725 and 1728
presents the Assumption of the Holy Mother and on the right you can see
the bishop throne.
From Wikipedia, free
encyclopaedia.
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