Pacific, Missouri
The Black Madonna, Copy of Our Lady of Czestochowa, Poland
Location: 100 St. Joseph Hill Road, Pacific, MO 63069, about 20 miles SE of St. Louis, 1958 mosaic by Frederick Henze.
The history of this shrine began in 1927, when the archbishop of St. Louis requested a group of Franciscans to come from Poland to set up a nursing home in the countryside. A number of Franciscan Missionary Brothers of the Sacred Heart of Jesus emigrated from Poland to the St. Louis area. Among them was Brother Bronislaus Luszcz, age thirty-four. They were given an abandoned convent in the foothills of the Ozarks and built an infirmary. The brothers had a small farm that produced food for themselves and the infirmary. The Black Madonna Shrine is adjacent to the site of the infirmary which closed in 2008.
Construction of the “Black Madonna or Virgin Mary Shrine and Grotto” was begun in 1938 by Brother Bronislaus, who wanted to share his faith in Our Lady of Czestochowa. He built a beautiful cedar wood chapel and hung a portrait of the “Queen of Poland” above the altar. The chapel soon became a center of religious devotion, with numerous pilgrimages, prayer services and masses being offered.
Alas, the St. Louis area did not seem to be welcoming to Polish Catholics. In 1957, the church and school Our Lady of Czestochowa in St. Louis was closed by the city and razed as part of Interstate 55 construction. A year later, Brother Bronislaus’s cedar wood chapel was burned to the ground by an arsonist.
None of that could end devotion and worship of a Dark Mother, who has ample experience with being burnt, slashed, insulted and mistreated in so many ways. Absorbing and transforming all that negativity is part of her darkness and her scars.
A new covered open air chapel of the Black Madonna was begun immediately and in the 1960’s the archbishop of St. Louis donated to it the glass-encased icon of the Lady of Czestochova that had hung over the high altar of the razed church of his city. Originally, the painting was brought to Missouri by Polish settlers. It is believed to be between 200 and 300 years old.
Photo: “Craves, Caves, and Graves”
The mosaic wall of the Chapel was created by Frederick Henze, a well-known artist and friend of Brother Bronislaus. Henze also created the icon of the Madonna above the altar, the angels above the candle racks, and the icons of St. Helena and St. Luke the Evangelist.
The painting on the Chapel's easel was commissioned by Stefan Cardinal Wyszynski, the former Primate of Poland, to replace the painting destroyed in the cedar chapel. In order to absorb the graces of the original icon, this picture was placed on the altar at Jasna Gora, the monastery in Poland that houses the original, for nine masses (a novena), touched to the original, blessed by the local Cardinal, and then shipped to the Brothers in America. The painting arrived only weeks prior to the death of Brother Bronislaus.
Photo: Mark S. Abeln
Below the main shrine is a chapel in the woods, rediscovered in 1995. A long trail leads to this oh so Franciscan place that embraces nature and spiritual poverty. Most everything here is made from scraps and bits of discarded objects. The sacred well, that is a feature of countless Black Madonna sanctuaries in Europe is part of this forest chapel.¹
Brother Bronislaus dedicated the Black Madonna Shrine to Mary under the title "Queen of Peace and Mercy". After completing the chapel, he began building grottoes, using concrete and native Missouri tiff rock from a nearby mining town. The grottos feature statues of St. Francis, St. Joseph, Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Jesus and the disciples at Gethsemane, Our Lady of Sorrows, Mary’s Assumption, and the Nativity. Each is an intricate mosaic with seashells, costume jewelry, ceramic figurines, and colorful bits brought to him by pilgrims from time to time. Cake pans shaped like lambs and rabbits became molds for the concrete animals that sit at the feet of St. Francis.
The chapel of Our Lady of Perpetual Help
Brother Bronislaus spent twenty three years building the shrine, and died from a heat stroke in 1960 at the age of sixty-six, while working on a grotto of Our Lady of Fatima.
Since the Franciscans who run the shrine are not necessarily priests, the schedule of masses is a little sketchy. They try to offer Sunday morning masses, but it’s best to call the shrine to confirm: (636) 938-5361