The Washington herald., 1912-03-21
THE IMAGE OF
THE BLACK LADY

/ stocnoWo Is q great worry 10 the Nau-
can and that the attending disgrace tells
upon the dignitaries Of the Roman Cath
olic Church. This is proven by the ac-
ltion taken by the pontiff, who pro-
nounced the great accommodation
upon the guilty prior of the convent and
had him summarily unfrocked. The Pope
also gave the sum of $4,000 from his
private fortune for the readornment of
the crown of the despoiled image or the
Virgin in the convent church.
The little town OF Czenstochowo, known
for centuries as the Polish "Lourdes,"
has been the scene OF crime and vandal-
ism rarely II ever paralleled In the his
tory Of any church. The hamlet is situ-
ated on the railroad which connects
Warsaw (the capital Of Poland, Cracow,
and Lemberg with Vienna, and is but a
few miles from the Prussian frontier
in the province OF Silesia.
In the old church of the famous con-
vent OF the monks of ST. Paul the her.
NIT at CZenstochowo is the highly ven
Grated dark-colored image OF the Holy
Virgin, which. owing TO the many miracles
/ attributed TO her. annually attracts more
than half million of pilgrims to the
place, who travel on foot-often bare
foot-hundreds. yea even thousands, OF
miles, In order to PROSTATE themselves
| before "Our Lady of Czenstochowo,"
praying for and Qf their statements go
for anything) as a rule returning home
again fully cured Of the physical ills that
had beset them.
The picture itself seems TO be OF By
zantine origin. According to the legend
in connection with 1t. It was painted by
the Apostle Luke himself; passed into the
hands OF a certain legendary Princess
Helena of Poland; subsequently,, through
the Russian Prince Laon. found its way
TO the town of Belz, In Galicia, and
finally through wladyslaw. Duke OF OPP
peln lin Silesia). who built the monastery
Of Czenstochowo, was brought thither to
assist him In his wars against the in
vading Tartar hordes.
The convent formerly was strongly
fortified, and its defense in 1856. during
| the thirty years war OF the reformation,
| by seventy monks and $50 soldiers against
| n beleaguering Swedish army OF 10000
| men under the command Of the great
Gustavus Adolphus. to this very day con-
| stitutes one of the most heroic episodes
In the annals Of the history Of Poland.
This image Of the BLACK Lady OF
Czenstochowo." as the picture is called
among the populsce, was studded with
priceless Jewels, the accumulated gift Of
centuries from a deyout Polish aristoc-
racy and rulers, and one OF the charges
against the three monks and their prior,
who are at present being tried before the
sssizes at Petrikor. in Russian Poland.
is that by means OF master keys they
got at these treasures. despoiled the holy
image. and substituted limitations for the
real gems. A second charge is that to
prevent discovery Of this desecration a
man was murdered.
The first trace of the crime was the
discovery. near the convent gates, of a
lady's small bag. which evidently had
been lost, and containing some OF the
stolen Jewels. A still greater sensation,
however, was created by the discovery.
in the river warta, of n sophia, inside
OF which was hidden the mutiliated body
OF a man. For months. the Russian po-
lice were baffied, even though the body
had been sewn up in rush mating with
several numbers on II. Finally. n rail-
way official recognized them as the num-
bers used on thea warsawVienna Rail-
road-on European railroads each piece
Of freight Is numbered by the officials
to facilitate its tracing when lost. The
package with those numbers had been
sent 20 the CzenstochoNo Convent But
even then II did not occur to anybody
to suspect that the monks might be con-
neCted with the mysterious discovery.
At the beginning of October, 1910. an
intoxicated "drOshka' (cabl driver told
some of his Confreres that the porter at
the convent had ordered him TO drive to
an out-Of-the-way door in the wall OF the
cloister garden. where two monks ap-
peared carrying a heavy sofa which, at
the orders of their prior. who accOmpa-
MED them. they put into his carriage.
Another ''droshka" was fetched. into
which the three chUrchmen stepped. Be
fore reaching the river the second coach
man was dismissed.
The mysterious sofa was then thrown
into the water, where the men supposed
it would sink, owing TO its weight. The
priest thereupon laid crucifiX on the
drivers forehead and made him swear
that he would never reveal what he had
witnessed, as It had been done for the
good Of the church and all Christendom."
Upon the strength of the coachman's
testimony. Father Damazy Macochy.
confessed ALL He told OF the
robbery and of the murder Of
his own cousin. He revealed to the
horror-stricken court that during upward
Of ten years the most riotous life had
been led by the monks who squandered
the church's treasures in orgies and eN-
cesses. Drunkenness, card playing, and
the visits of women, he said, were the
order OF the day.
But. Notwithstanding. all this, the
monks of Czenstochowo declared them
selves TO be especially holy men who had
visions" This the prosecuting attorney
reduced to the fact that one of the
brothers. after drinking fourteen bottles
Of wine. had fallen in a fit Of apoplexy.
BY degrees. the accused priest says,
he removed all the jewels from the crown
Of the Holy Virgin, selling them through
the efforts of his cousin and the latter's
wife. a former telephone operator. The
accused deposed that eight years ago he
saw the girl as a pilgrim in the church
and took her to his cell Afterward he
married her off to his cousin, but his
relations with her did not cease. He
furnished a fiat for her a Warsaw, with
princely munificence, and her bank
account still showed a credit OF 5000
rubles.
To the credit OF the monks at the con-
vent, be it recorded that the investi-
cation disclosed that some of the in
mates loudly protested against the shame
full and scPndalous doings, which prompt
ed the bishop OF the diocese to request
the archbishop at Warsaw TO have an
other prior. sent TO Czenstochowo. But
nothing was done.
When three years ago the discovery
had first been made that the image of