The Polish mission in Adrianople

Before we turn to the history of the much-revered painting of Our Lady of Częstochowa in Malko Tarnovo, we must first travel back in time and then across space.

In the autumn of 1863, the January Uprising was drawing to a close in the territories of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and the entire existing socio-political and economic order was fading into oblivion. At the same time, in Bulgaria, on the eve of its emergence as an independent nation, there was no shortage of political and religious turmoil. Thanks to the powerful intercession – including financial support – of Prince Adam Czartoryski, the union between the Bulgarian Orthodox Church and Rome was signed at the turn of 1860/1861. The result of multilateral diplomatic efforts, jointly led by Paris and Istanbul as well as the Polish émigré community residing in Turkey, was the official establishment of the Bulgarian Uniate Church. Józef Sokołski became its first ordinary. The signature of this Bulgarian clergyman appeared on all union documents, which did not sit well with Russia. Bishop Sokołski was soon abducted to St Petersburg, from where he never returned to his homeland. His successor, Rafał Popow, met an even worse fate – he was poisoned.

At the same time, a third clergyman, the Pole Hieronim Kajsiewicz – a participant in the November Uprising, a writer and co-founder of the Resurrectionist Order – brought to Adrianople (now Edirne), in Turkish Rumelia, his fellow brothers: Father Karol Kaczanowski and Brother Marcin Janus, who first established an elementary school and later the highly regarded Bulgarian-Catholic Grammar School. The high standard of teaching at the Adrianople school guaranteed admission without entrance examinations to universities in various European countries, including Switzerland and France. The missionary work of the Polish Resurrectionists bore fruit; the number of the faithful grew, and the fame of this place also reached the Partitioned Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.

The Icon of Our Lady of Częstochowa in Malko Tarnovo

In 1907, the church in Adrianople and the Resurrectionist monastery received an extraordinary gift – a copy of the image of Our Lady of Częstochowa.

The Jasna Góra image is of the so-called Hodegetria type, which in Greek means ‘she who shows the way’, as the Mary depicted in it holds the infant Jesus in one hand whilst pointing the way with the other. There are at least two hypotheses regarding the interpretation of this particular gesture and, by extension, the title. According to the first, Empress Pulcheria placed the original of this icon in the Church of Ton Odigon in Constantinople, where monks caring for the blind ministered. The second hypothesis suggests that Mary is literally pointing to the surroundings in which she was placed, namely the port district, teeming with sailors and merchants. This most famous image of the Virgin Mary arrived in Częstochowa on 9 August 1382, brought there by Prince Władysław Opolczyk, from where it went on to spread to Hungary, Germany, Austria, Russia, England and France.

Our Lady of Lviv

The devotion to the Częstochowa image was also very much alive in Galicia. Walenty Jakóbiak (Jakubiak), a goldsmith from Lviv, came up with the idea of donating a copy of the icon to a Bulgarian church. What inspired him to undertake such an original – and, let’s not deny it, costly – project?

Perhaps, at the very beginning of his career as a painter, he was inspired by conversations with Adam Chmielowski, who later became Saint Brother Albert. The two met in Rome, where Jakóbiak was at the time training, gaining experience in the finest workshops in Europe.

Yet we still do not know why he chose Adrianople. What is certain is that, in presenting a painting of unknown authorship, the Lviv native dedicated the gift as ‘a source of comfort to all Catholics living in the Eastern Balkans’. The painting itself features a golden, richly decorated robe. Just like the original at Jasna Góra, Mary and the infant Jesus held in her arms have darker skin here, and their eyes look directly at the viewer, whilst the face of the Mother of God is marked by two parallel lines. The icon is complemented by two gilded figures of kneeling angels – most likely made of wood – positioned on either side of the painting. Like the robe, these were produced in Jakóbiak’s workshop.

The Final Mission – Malko Tarnovo

The donor arrived in person with his gift, and Adrianople must have made quite an impression on him. The city, the centre of the Bulgarian Resurrectionist mission, once known as Hadrianopolis in honour of its founder, Emperor Hadrian, is still considered one of the most disputed places in the world. Its location, near the borders of Greece, Turkey and Bulgaria, meant that its allegiance changed frequently during the 20th century. The Resurrectionist mission in Adrianople flourished until 1914. After the Ottoman Empire entered the First World War on the side of Germany and Austria-Hungary, all representatives of the Entente powers left Adrianople. The Polish missionaries, however – due to their links with French missionary societies – were regarded as potential agents of the Western powers. The Resurrectionists’ work in Adrianople officially came to an end in 1928, although even before that, following armed conflicts and political upheavals, the monks had been forced to relocate (along with the church’s furnishings) to Stara Zagora in Bulgaria, where they spent nearly thirty years.

After the Second World War, the communist authorities of the People’s Republic of Bulgaria waged a campaign against all forms of religion, particularly against Catholic religious orders, most of which had arrived from other European countries. It was then that the Resurrectionist priests set out once more. They eventually settled in Malko Tarnovo in Strandzha, a south-eastern border region of Bulgaria, where a Uniate community had been active since the 19th century. The precious icon was first placed in the Church of the Holy Trinity, built in 1930. Over time, a chapel was added to the church, to which Uniate, Catholic and Orthodox faithful from all over the world make pilgrimages to this day.

The Bulgarian Black Madonna – Patroness of Christian Unity

Today, the image of the saint is adorned with a golden crown set with precious stones. The ceremony to bestow the royal regalia upon the icon took place on 25 May 2002. On that occasion, Pope John Paul II offered a prayer at the sanctuary, and it was not only Bulgarians who remembered his words:

May the Lord sustain you and assist you in nobly fulfilling the tasks of Christian life, and through the intercession of His Most Holy Mother, venerated as the Patroness of Christian Unity at the Sanctuary of the Most Holy Trinity in Malko Tarnovo, may He bestow upon you an abundance of His blessings.

Years later, when Karol Wojtyła was proclaimed a saint, another special Polish artefact arrived at the sanctuary: the so-called ‘piuska’, the headdress the Pope was wearing whilst celebrating Mass at the time.

And so, in this small village, far from the usual tourist hotspots, we discover traces of Poland. We can only hope that their wandering stories have now come to an end.