The Virgin Mary of Częstochowa in Blessed Marcelina Darowska's Life

Abstract

The article discusses the role that was played by the devotion to the Virgin Mary of Częstochowa in the spiritual life of Mother Marcelina Darowska who was a co-funder of the Order of the Immaculate Conception and then for many years was its superior. The author considers that role in connection with the history of Jasna Góra at the end of the 19^th and beginning of the 20^th centuries. The development of the cult of the Virgin Mary of Częstochowa at the turn of the 19^th century played a significant role in Mother Marcelina's spiritual life. Russian repressive measures against the Częstochowa sanctuary and against the Paulinite Fathers as well as attempts at discrediting the monastery were a source of suffering for her. In 1910 she sacrificed her life as compensation for the tragedy of fratricide that had taken place in Jasna Góra. Until her death in 1911 she supported both in her personal life and in the life of her Order an extraordinary devotion to the Virgin Mary reigning over the Polish nation from Częstochowa.