We were blessed on Saturday to have Don's Mom over for the day while Dad went to a caregiver class, so I completely forgot about Catholic Art Saturday. Today is actually perfect being as it's Mother's Day and I wanted to share Our Lady of Czestochowa(pronounced ChestaHOVa) from Poland. It was damaged in a fire causing the paint to darken, so it's often referred to as the "Black Madonna." I chose this image because it holds a special place in the heart of Blessed John Paul II. He has been on my heart since his beatification last Sunday.
The image has been associated with Poland since the 1300's, the origin however, has been a source of debate. I like the story that St. Luke painted it on the table at the home of the Holy Family while Mary told him about the childhood of Jesus. I showed this image to the children at Holy Savior in relation to Blessed John Paul II last week, and there were genuine exclamations of admiration and I asked them if they knew who it was, they all knew it was Mary and baby Jesus. I think it's beautiful that so many countries have their own versions of holy images... it's an unspoken language of universal understanding and recognition.
Here's a link to my friend,Mary's Blog about it in greater detail.
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ReplyDeleteOops! I removed my previous post because I saw a MAJOR typo in it! Here's what I said:
ReplyDeleteI much prefer to believe that it was painted by St. Luke, and that Mary spoke to him about Jesus' life; that's how he wrote his gospel! I wrote a post about the "Black Madonna" after one of the monks from Czestochowa visited our parish for a Parish Mission:
http://mary-lifeinasmalltown.blogspot.com/2011/04/black-madonna_19.html
I agree!! I remember your post about it...I was even going to post a link to it!!! I forgot! I will edit to include. Thanks Mary!!
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