One of the Lucan Icons of the Blessed Virgin Hodegetria and Jesus and the oldest and most important Marian icon of Poland. Brought to Jasna Góra in Częstochowa by Władysław Opolczyk – Oppelni László – Владислав Опольчик – Vladislaus II Duke of Opole in August of 1382 from Белз – Bełz, a city in the present-day Lviv Oblast of western Ukraine, and at the time situated in the Hungariran-ruled part of Галицко-Волинскоє князство – Principality of Galicia(Halych)–Volhynia, one of the realms then ruled by Vladislaus. The the precious icon had resided for centuries in Bełz before being brought to Jasna Góra and to the monastery founded on the orders of Vladislaus in 1382. The still earlier homes of the icon are shouded in legend, though if such legends are true, it may have been discovered in Jerusalem in 326 Anno Domini by Queen Saint Helena and brought to Constantinople from Jerusalem by Saint Helena and presented to her son, Emperor Constantine, having been written by Evangelist Saint Luke on a cedar table top from the home of the Holy Family. |