There are two version of the history of the Jasna Gora painting. There is a traditional version, steeped in legend and an historical one, reconstructed by art critics whose attention was drawn to this extraordinary image and its origins.

According to the traditional version, the painting was created by St Luke the Evangelist on a table top from the house of the Holy Family. St Luke was said to have painted two images of Mary, one of which found its way to Italy and was kept in Bologna where it is still venerated. The other was said to have been removed from Jerusalem and brought to Constantinopole by the Emperor Constantine and placed in a church. Six centuries later, the Russian Prince Lev obtained the painting from the emperor of the time in acknowledgement of his military achievements.

During the wars in Rus, Prince Vladislaus of Opole found the painting in the castle at Belz and discovered it was being venerated as if it were miraculous. After the victory over the Tatars, he brought the painting to Czestochowa, entrusting it to Pauline Monks for safekeeping. This information is contained in a manuscript - one of the oldest - entitled "Translatio Tabulae", a copy of which, dated 1474, is conserved in the Jasna Gora archives.

According to art critics, the Jasna Gora painting was originally a Byzantine icon (of the Hodigitria type), dating between the sixth and ninth centuries.

On Easter Day April 14, 1430, a gang of robbers from Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia attacked the monastery. They burst into the chapel of the Mother of God and grabbed the image from the altar. They then stole all the painting's valuable gift offerings and disfigured it slashing it with their swords.

They threw the painting to the ground and it broke in three places, according to the account of Piotr Risinus in the 1523 volume "Historia Pulchra". The painting was restored at Krakow, at the court of King Ladislaus Jagiello. Restorers tried repeatedly to spread colour on the panel but the shades kept vanishing. Today, it is known that in the Middle Ages, restorers had difficulty working on an ancient icon because of the application of tempera colours on an image obtained with shades diluted with fused wax. Because the restoration operation was a total failure, the restorers scraped away the ancient image and painted a completely new one over the miraculous panel. They marked the sings of the robbers' outrage on the face of the image with a pen, inmemory of the barbarism.

After the painting's profanation and restoration, the sanctuary's fame grew even more. There were more and more pilgrimages to the site and soon the original gothic church proved too small to cater for the vast numbers of faithful. So in the 1460s, building was begun beside the Chapel to Our Lady on a new gothic church with three wide aisles.

In 1466, the monastery was attacked again, by the army of the Bohemian King. These raids and the need for a protective bulwark near the border with Silesia convinced King Ladislaus IV to erect a wall round the monastery. Work was begun in 1638 transforming the Jasna Gora sanctuary into a Marian Fortress - Fortalitium Marianum. But it would not be put to the test again. At about 1655, a plan for attacking Poland was devised and on July 21 that year, the Swedish Army marched on the country. Warsaw, Poznan and Krakow soon fell. The Polish nobility, divided by internecine disputes, refused to fight and the whole country fell under Swedish dominion. On November 18, 1655, General Muller's army of 3,000 men reached Jasna Gora demanding the sanctuary's immediate surrender. Nevertheless, Jasna Gora's Prior, Augustine Kordecki decided to defend the holy site. He could count on 170 soldiers, 20 noblemen and 70 monks, too few to stand up to the 3,000 Swedish invaders.

When the monks refused to surrender, the Swedish army opened their attack which was to last 40 days but which would end in victory for Mary's army. The victory secured by the tiny Jasna Gora fortress, which General Muller scathingly called the "henhouse", proved to be of great religious and political importance. The attack on Jasna Gora was considered a violation of religious sentiments and the victorious result was ascribed not to the military skill of the soldiers nor to the solidity of the fortress but to protection by the Mother of God herself, guardian of the site. After the Jasna Gora victory, the whole country rose up against the Swedish invaders.

On April 1, 1656, in the cathedral of Lvov, King John Casimirus solemnly pronounced his vow to consecrate the country to the protection of the Mother of God and proclaimed Her the Patron and Queen of the lands in his kingdom. the nation's destiny was entrusted to the Most Blessed Virgin from that moment. Jasna Gora became a symbol of religious and political liberty for the Polish people. But the fortifications of the Marian bulwark would have to stave off more attacks, in 1565, 1702, 1704 and 1705.

From 1711, Poland lived in relative peace. It was the time to crown the Effigy to Our Lady. the faithful had been requesting this for a long time and a crown had been placed on the image as far back as the sanctuary's foundation according to lithographs of the 16th century.

On the occasion of the Apostolic Nuncio, Benedetto Odescalchi, the Pauline monks made enquiries about organising the crowning of the image. They had drawn favourable replies and formally presented their request to the Vatican Chapter. In 1716, Pope Clement XI signed the Act of Incoronation and it took place on September 8, 1717 in presence of about 200,000 faithful.

On the night of September 22, 1909, the pearl vestment and two gold crowns, which were papal gifts, were stolen from the Miraculous Painting. When Pope Pius X heard about the theft he offered two new crowns to the Jasna Gora painting. The new incoronation took place on May 22, 1910 and although the partition of Poland was again under way, it was celebrated amid the same splendour as the 1717 ceremony.

On July 27, 1920 with the Russian Bolshevik scourge close at hand, the Polish Episcopate met at Jasna Gora and again proclaimed Mary, Queen of Poland. When the Red Army reached Warsaw, thousands of Poles travelled to Jasna Gora to their Queen to beg her for victory, which duly came on August 15, the Feast of the Assumption. This victory, called the "miracle of the Vistula" was attributed to Our Lady's intercession.

In 1932, the 550th anniversary of the transfer of the Effigy of Mary from Belz to Jasna Gora was celebrated. That year, 750,000 pilgrims travelled t the sanctuary.

In 1957, Pope Pius XII blessed a copy of the Jasna Gora effigy that to be taken from parish to parish throughout the nation. It travelled the country for 25 years and was to bring about numerous conversions.

John Paul II made on offering of a golden rose and set it on the altar of the Mother of God.

This famous icon of the "Black Madonna" of Poland has a long and amazing history. Found by St Helena in the Holy Land in the 4th century, it has traveled over the years from place to place and now resides in the Jasna Gora monastery, where it is the center of Polish nationalism and religious tradition. The icon received two attacks in the Middle Ages, one a strike from an arrow on Our Lady's throat and later two slashes on Her face. All attempts to repair the icon failed - it seems Our Lady wishes to remind us of the swords that pierced Her heart.

The great age of the icon accounts for the different style from the classical icons seen elsewhere - the ornamentation on the robes and the unusual facial features. Many icons of the Blessed Virgin are associated with striking miracles but this one, especially, has a rich history of them, often in connection with attempts to steal the icon.