Monastary of Jasna Gora in Czestochowa

Trip Start Jun 22, 2008
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Trip End Jul 03, 2008


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Flag of Poland  , Southern Poland,
Thursday, June 26, 2008

After we left Warsaw, we took to the Polish highways and made our way to Czestochowa,  which is about 160 km and about 2/3 the way from Warsaw to Krakow.   We are quickly finding that driving in Poland is a bit of an adventure.  Drivers are agressive,  and they tailgate with less than one car length at 100km per hour speeds.  They pass into oncoming traffic.  Yielding at unmarked intersections is whoever is boldest and fastest.  Trucks cross over the lines around curves and sometimes your choice is to jam the curb or jam the truck tires.  Motorcycles zip though stopped traffic inches from car mirrors.  Kind of like driving in downtown New York or Chicago all the time.  Best thing to do is match the agressiveness with the same.

David has done most of the driving so far, (he hates it, but prefers it to sitting in the front seat helpless while I drive).  I have done the map reading and navigating and so far we have not gotten lost for very long Walking up to Jasna Gora
Walking up to Jasna Gora
 .  Our sidetrips  down alleys and though markets and back streets with dead ends have been interesting, though. 

The monastary of Jasna Gora, (Bright Mountain), in Czestochowa is remarkable!  This complex is significant and is much more than another museum.  It is the primary pilgrimage site for Polish Roman Catholics and other Catholics from around the world.  Jasna Gora ranks 5th in the world for the number of visitors and pilgrimages behind such well known destinations as the Vatican, Mecca, and Fatima, to name a few.  Thousands of people come to Jasna Gora to see the Black Madonna who is purported to have miraculous healing powers.
The basilica and the chapel of the Madonna are over the top ornate.  There are many confessionals staffed all day with priests to hear the confessions of visitors.  Masses and services run continually.  Altars are staffed continually with priests reading the Gospel.  Around the exterior of the complex, from on top of the walls,  a priests leads worshippers on the Stations of the Cross continually. 
Dad sat through two serivces,  all in Polish, and received communion.  In between services,  visitors showed their reverence for the Black Madonna by traversing a route of about 150 feet around the sanctuary of the chapel ON THIER KNEES.  Dad, because of his robo-knee walked around this with his cane.  Several people overwhelmed by the experience were seen crying. 
We spent the evening at Jasna Gora and went back for more pictures in the morning before leaving for Krakow.  It was moving, to say the least, to see the intensity of the devotion of visitors to Jasna Gora.  Dad was deeply touched by the experience, which he thought was going to be just another art museum.  I was struck by the importance of the roman catholic church in the lives of the Polish people.  Catholicism is the predominant religion in Poland.  I can say that I did not see any protestant churchs during our travels, and only a few Jewish synagogues while we stayed in Krakow.  This part of Polish culture was carried to the United States by my father's parents and was also a large part of my upbringing in Indiana.
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