We were on the road at 7:15 this morning. Only because we have so much to do and the roads in Poland are still under the new reconstruction after communism. We are headed to Krakow but will first make two stops: one to Jasna Gora and then to Auschwitz.
The roads were terrible and because of the changes in signage, our bus driver got lost several times. First was Jasna Gora.
There are three main pilgrimage trips and places in Europe to go for a Catholic. One is in Lourdes, France, the other is in Spain, which we drove past 3 years ago, and the third is in Poland called Jasna Gora. It is a huge monastery that used to be a military fortress in the 17th century. It is now the largest sanctuary in Poland and has 100 Monks and many Fathers who go from 6 am to 8 pm non- stop everyday blessing people who arrive for forgiveness and for miracles.
More than this though, it is the home of the famous "Black Madonna" who hangs in the chapel and is covered and uncovered 4 times a day. (This item is a large, framed picture of Holy Mary and The Baby Jesus. The Turkish carved her out of a special wood and since then, she has been getting darker and darker. Over the centuries, many people and countries have created an overlay item that would make her and the baby decorated in an outfit of gold or jewels or threads and beads.) Like the Pope and The Queen, it is tradition to receive people at these times, (uncovered at 6, covered at 12, uncovered at 1:30, covered for the night at 6), so too can she only be viewed. In 1655, the Swedish tried to attacked Poland and take the monastery but, the people say that Mary stopped the takeover and then in 1656 the Pope declared her The Queen of Poland.
Some 3 1/2 million people visit her each year. In the very far past, 50 bandits came into the monastery and tried to destroy the Madonna and ended up running their saber blade along the right side of her cheek. Today the original marks still remain and any copies of her also have these marks.
During the war, the Nazi army took over the monastery and, miraculously, they destroyed nothing and neither did they steal any of the jewels or riches safe guarded there. Well, we know that Hitler was superstitious, but Europe saw it as a miracle because the whole of Krakow also escaped any bombings or destruction.
Poland is a very religious country and today we saw how people from all over the world make this Pilgrimage to walk the floors, go to mass (as there is one each hour) and to view the holy items in the halls of the castle. There are billions of dollars in treasures there.
We had a monk as our guide Father Roman- who was very funny but very old and he had me walk behind him the whole tour so that he kept hitting my elbow whenever I had to kneel to show respect or make the sign of the cross. There were thousands of people there on this day and it was hard to not believe that the people's belief is alive and well.
