National Shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa

The origins of the American Czestochowa lie in the postwar exile of the Pauline Fathers from Communist Hungary. Father Michael M. Zembrzuski, OSPPE (1908–2003), who had headed the Hungarian province of the Order of St. Paul the First Hermit until 1948, was expelled by the Hungarian People's Republic and spent several years in Rome before arriving in the United States in 1951. After preaching at Polish parishes in the U.S. and Canada, he sought a permanent site where Polish-Americans could reconnect with their Marian heritage. In 1953, with permission from the Holy See and Archbishop John Francis O'Hara of Philadelphia, Father Zembrzuski purchased a tract of land — initially about 40 acres — on a hilltop near Doylestown in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. A farmhouse on the property was converted into a monastery, and a small wooden barn was turned into a temporary chapel housing a copy of the Black Madonna icon of Częstochowa, blessed by Pope St. John XXIII. The barn chapel was relocated and dedicated on June 26, 1955, in a ceremony at which Father Stanley Nowak blessed the chapel, which contained a painting of Our Lady of Czestochowa by Władysław Bończa-Rutkowski. The first recorded pilgrimage came from St. Laurentius Parish in Philadelphia for that dedication ceremony, and the Union of Polish Women in America began organizing annual gatherings at the site from 1956 onward. By 1956, the Pauline community on the hill had grown to four members: Fathers Michael Zembrzuski and Stanley Nowak and Brothers Casmir Pasnik and Mark Mitura. As news of the shrine spread among Polish-American communities, the barn chapel quickly proved too small. In 1960, with the financial support of the faithful, additional property was acquired — including a neighboring hilltop that reminded Father Zembrzuski of Jasna Góra (Bright Hill) in Poland — and the Shrine Cemetery was opened and consecrated. A solemn procession to nearby Beacon Hill, the highest point in Bucks County, took place on September 17, 1963, and on the feast of Our Lady of Czestochowa in 1964, Archbishop (later Cardinal) John Krol presided over the groundbreaking ceremony for a permanent church. The Pauline Fathers set themselves the goal of completing the new Shrine by 1966 to coincide with the millennium of the Christianization of Poland in 966. In less than two years, the construction site was transformed into a grand Shrine celebrating Polish Catholic culture. On Sunday, October 16, 1966, Cardinal Krol solemnly dedicated the new Shrine in the presence of thousands of pilgrims and the honored guest, President of the United States Lyndon Baines Johnson, and his family. In his speech, the President praised Polish contributions to America and reaffirmed bonds between the two nations. The upper church, designed by Polish-American architect George Szeptycki, was built to house a large reproduction of the Black Madonna icon, while the lower church (the Chapel of Our Lady of Czestochowa) was carefully modeled after the interior of the Jasna Góra shrine in Poland. The upper church features large stained-glass windows, including some rescued from the closed St. Laurentius Church in Philadelphia, depicting the history of Christianity in Poland and the United States. In 1969 and again in 1976, Cardinal Karol Wojtyła, the future Pope John Paul II, visited the Shrine, the second time while attending the Eucharistic Congress in Philadelphia. In August 1980, Pope John Paul II blessed and personally signed an icon of Our Lady of Czestochowa, which is now venerated in the lower chapel. In 1988, the Shrine expanded again with the dedication of the Ave Maria Retreat House, the Visitor Center, and a true replica of the Jasna Góra altar in the Lower Chapel, along with the consecration of the Main Church altar. That same year, an annual walking pilgrimage from the Church of Saints Peter and Paul in Great Meadows, New Jersey, was inaugurated. The Shrine has been granted the formal designation of "National Shrine" by the Administrative Committee of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Father Michael Zembrzuski died in 2003 and is buried in the Shrine Cemetery, where the painter Adam Styka — who became the first person interred there — and Polish World War II veterans are also buried, alongside monuments to Ignacy Jan Paderewski, the Polish-Lithuanian hussars, and the victims of the Katyń massacres; Paderewski's heart is preserved at the Shrine. In June 2025, the Shrine marked the 70th anniversary of its founding with solemn celebrations attended by Philadelphia Metropolitan Archbishop Nelson Perez and Bishop Krzysztof Nykiel, who read a decree from the Holy Father prepared for the occasion.