Calvary Mother of God

The image is painted on canvas measuring 74 by 90 cm. The author is unknown. The picture is probably a copy of the image of the Our Lady of Myslenice, located in the parish church in the city of Myslenice near Krakow. The picture is covered with a salary with a rich ornament with two crowns - a small one over the Divine Infant and a large one over the Mother of God.

Under the salary, the Virgin Mary is depicted in a dark red tunic with a dark blue cloak, Her hair is covered with a transparent fabric. The naked Baby, whose body is also covered with transparent fabric, stands to the right of the Mother of God; with his left hand He embraces Her by the neck; with his right hand, He clings to Her cloak. The face of the Baby is depicted almost in profile, His left cheek is firmly pressed to the right cheek of the Virgin Mary. The face of Our Lady is depicted in three quarters. She leaned slightly to the right. Her left hand reaches for the Divine Infant. Above the heads of the Mother of God and the Baby, bright red halo with a pearl-precious ornament.

On May 3, 1641, Stanislav Pashkovsky from Brzeze Pashkovsky, during prayer, saw bloody tears flowing from the eyes of the Mother of God in the picture. This event was notified to Bishop Krakow, who advised the owner to donate the image of the church in Martsiporemb. On the way with the painting to Martsiporembo, Stanislav Pashkovsky suddenly clearly felt that an unknown force led him in a completely different direction. Thus he was at the sanctuary of Calvarius. Seeing that will of God, he left an image in this place.

On May 5, 1641, the Bernardine Fathers became custodians of the image of Our Lady of the Weeping. At first, by order of the bishop of Krakow, Jakub Zadzik , the picture was kept in the sacristy, where it was supposed to remain until the miraculous nature of the event was clarified. In 1656, church authorities recognized the bloody cry of the Mother of God in the picture as a miracle. The image was placed on the altar in the main church of the monastery.

In 1658 - 1667, through the efforts of the Krakow governor Mikhail Zebrzydowski , a chapel was built in the southern wall of the church, where they placed a miraculous image.

The coronation of the miraculous image of Our Lady of Calvary took place on August 15, 1887. The coronation was held by Cardinal Albin Dunaevsky . The ceremony was attended by the Archbishop of Lviv and the Armenian Archbishop Isaac Isaakovich. The golden crown was given to Jesus as a gift by pilgrims from Teszyn Silesia , while the crown of the Mother of God was donated by parishioners of the archdiocese of Krakow . Insignia was blessed by the Pope . In 1936 - 1937, engineer Stanislav Yamroz developed a project for a new marble altar for the image of Our Lady of Calvary.

The image of Our Lady of Calvary was the place of frequent prayers of Cardinal Karol Wojtyla, the future Saint Pope John Paul II . As a pope, he visited the sanctuary twice: June 7, 1979 and during his last pilgrimage to Poland on August 19, 2002. In gratitude for the Pope’s pilgrimage to his homeland in 2002, the Bernardine Fathers ordered a new salary for the image of Our Lady of Calvary. On the centenary of the coronation of the image, on June 10, 1987, he sent the Golden Rose as a gift to the sanctuary. During his pilgrimage to Poland, on May 27, 2006, Pope Benedict XVI prayed before this image.

• The history of the image of Our Lady of Calvary (Polish)
• History of veneration of the image of Our Lady of Calvary (Polish)
• An article about Our Lady of Calvary on the website of the Nasza arka publication (Polish)

• Our Lady of the Baker