St. Joseph to Enhance Its Unique Shrine

Every Wednesday evening at 7:30, Mass at St. Joseph Church in Raleigh is followed by a novena before an astonishingly accurate replica of Poland's famous icon of Our Lady of Czestochowa. St. Joseph's image of "The Black Madonna" was donated by the Polish-American Club of Raleigh in the Holy Year 1986. On the feast of the Immaculate Conception, 1987, Bishop Gossman blessed and formally enshrined the icon in the church. And in 1990, then pastor Fr. JaVan Saxon and fourteen St. Joseph parishioners took the icon to Rome, where Pope John Paul II blessed the image and the parish in a private audience.

Today, as St. Joseph Church undertakes a three-phase renovation and expansion, its parishioners of Polish descent are also seeking to enhance this precious shrine. Their plan involves "serious" work on the altar of the shrine and construction of an encadrement - a structure surrounding the icon - using marble, wood and iron, according to parishioner and coordinator of the project Piotr Nowak. When Phase 3 of the church renovation is complete, there will also be more space around the shrine. Nowak estimates the cost of enhancing the shrine will be around $20,000.

One can't underestimate the importance of Our Lady of Czestochowa to Polish Catholics, says Poland-born Hanna Gracz, who is also involved in the project. "Mary saved Poland," she says, and this icon has been the focus of centuries of successful requests for deliverance from foreign invaders. Tradition says that the original image was painted on a cypress panel which had been used as a table top by the Holy Family in Nazareth. From there it traveled to Jerusalem, then Constantinople, Kiev and Ruthenia, before being brought for safekeeping to Czestochowa in 1382.

Hussite invaders damaged, but failed to destroy the icon in 1430. In the centuries afterwards, veneration to the Black Madonna grew, and it became adorned with precious metals and votive offerings. During the 16^th century, a period Polish historians call "The Deluge," the icon survived successive invasions of Russian Cossacks, Turks and Swedes. And in the 17^th century the monastery where the icon was kept endured a siege and cannonading by the Swedes, and the Polish king proclaimed Mary "Queen of Sovereign Poland" for answering its people's prayers. More recently Pope John Paul II credited the intercession of with the fall of communism in Eastern Europe.

St. Joseph's is the only shrine to Our Lady of Czestochowa in the Southeast U.S., the closest being at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C. In Raleigh, the Wednesday novena is "a spiritual magnet," says St. Joseph pastor Msgr. John Williams. "It's made a big difference in the life of our parish," he says, noting that the novena appeals to people from many different ethnic, linguistic and parish backgrounds.

The same can be said of the response so far to the fundraising campaign, says Piotr Nowak. "We've received checks from Houston, Texas and Reno, Nevada," he says. "A 96-year-old woman, who only had a few dollars, was one of our first contributors." Those who wish to give to this effort can contact the parish, or visit the Polish-American Club of the Triangle's Web site, www.polamrtp.com.