The Return Trip

It's time to return to Letohrad from the Polish excursion and so after Dan picks me up at Birkenau in the afternoon we head to the Wieliczka Salt Mine to pick up B.J. and Renata.  Success.. a bit of confusion as to the exact meeting point but small matter.  A quick dinner and into the car for the 150 km trip to Czestochowa and the pilgrimage site of Jasna Gora.  It takes about two and a half hours to navigate the narrow roads with the numerous small town speed limits.  But we arrive mid-evening and check with the lady for her rental apartment.  It's really nice: time for a good night's sleep.

The rental apartment is right on the broad boulevard leading to the impressive monastery atop Jasna

Jasna Gora

Góra (or bright hill). It all began in the late 14th century when some Pauline monks were funded by a local deep pocket to house the image of Our Lady of Jasna Gora.  OK, that's nice. So why is this a major pilgrimage site?  It might help if you realized the image is better known as "Black Madonna". Now, I'm certainly not an expert but I researched and there are various Black Madonnas in the world but this one has been sanctioned 'The' by several Popes (Clement XI, Pius X, John Paul II).  It has had a tough history, the origination date and place are unknown (thought to be somewhere between 4th & 6th centuries) and it received major damage in the 15th century, was restored and resides in current form at the basilica completed in the 17th century.  Apart from short periods the icon has been in the Jasna Gora monastery for over 600 years and is the focus of millions of pilgrims

from all over the world.

The night of arrival in the apartment we see in a brochure, Jasna Gora, The Shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa, that there are masses virtually hourly all day long-- but Renata is intrigued by the only one in Latin at 8 am.  Mass at eight, you gotta be kidding me... after a day of standing and walking and car riding.  I know when I'm out numbered so it's up and out for mass.  BUT...as is true style we are not familiar with the place and by the time we get to the basilica the mass has started.  BUT... we don't want to be in the basilica... we need to pop over to the small adjacent chapel.  Why.. the basilica is big, roomy, nice and the chapel is cramped and crowded.  (Yea, you can see it coming.... I can't believe how naive I was.)  I have never been Catholic so I naturally feel a bit ill at ease walking in the mass already in progress. B.J., who was brought up Catholic, heads down to the front-- oh, yes, there are only small seats on the sides and long benches against the wall, most of the chapel is standing/kneeling room.  I slither to the corner of one of the huge square columns and try to blend in in spite of looking like the Southern Baptist I grew up as.  What I notice is the constant flow of people during the mass; they move to the front, stand/kneel, and then move out... adults, youth, kids, no exceptions.  I catch B.J.'s eye a couple times and finally she round-circuits to where I am hiding.  "What do you think of the Black Madonna?", she questions.  Huh.... I can only see the people coming and going not what is happening in the nave of the chapel.  It never occurred to me this was the revered home of the icon (told you I

Black Madonna

Madonna with Veil

was naive).  "Sure, mass is over, come on".  Although, the people were still
ebbing and flowing non-stop, we sneak out into the front and there against the back wall is the Black Madonna.  Whoa... so this is what the draw is; impressive.  Now I understand the one guy that slithered up to the front and unabashedly took out his phone and snapped a pic.... I was wondering about that.  No, I was not going to do it - some sense of decorum prevented me - so you will just have to be satisfied with the stock photo of the icon! We then exited the chapel and joined Dan and Renata who were already outside; we headed back for breakfast to continue tour of the monastery ground later.  Also, we noticed in the brochure that at noon, 13:30 and 14:00 there was "Veiling (and/or Unveiling) of the Miraculous Image of the Blessed Mother".  I subsequently learned that through the centuries a tradition emerged in which a 'cover' or veil was alternately placed over and taken off the icon.  The veil leaves the faces and hands of Mary and baby Jesus exposed.  There are lots of these veils, brought by VIP pilgrims or indicative of certain occasions. We did not try to make it to these events since, even as we left the chapel earlier in the day, the human press was building and rises to such

...and going

Coming....

levels only the lucky and or determined get to view the process.  One final item of interest.  After breakfast we were heading back towards the monastery only to be accosted by 'millions' of bicyclists. It turns out that there is a dedicated public broadcast facility, Radio Jasna Gora, and this was the 26th anniversary. From the signage and shirts the various groups were wearing the bicycle barrage was sponsored by the station.

We are off on the trip back to Zamberk/Letohrad, but we have one more commitment. Needing dinner

Cat coffee anyone?

anyway, we stop in Olemouc and after eating head around the corner for coffee and dessert at what we dubbed the 'Chow Meow'.  This coffee shop was referenced in an earlier blog because we tried to see it on an earlier excursion here but it was late on a holiday and the place was closed.  This time it was open for business.  Living up to its name the coffee shop was populated with several cats who obviously had the rule of the place.  All there gratefully accepted the mixture of affection and sheer distain that only a cat can provide.