EUROPE/POLAND - Archbishop of Czestochowa presents copy of Black Madonna icon to Orthodox Russian monks whose monastery was once used as a concentration camp, where over 6,000 Polish soldiers were killed

Czestochowa (Agenzia Fides) – A delegation of monks from the Russian Orthodox Church, who are visiting Poland September 23-29, yesterday (September 24), participated in a time of Marian Prayer entitled “Jasna Gora Appeal” in the Chapel of Our Lady of Czestochowa, the National Shrine of Jasna Gora. The delegation of the Russian Orthodox Church was led by Arkadij Gubanow, Prior of the Orthodox Monastery of San Nil in Stolobienskoje, in the area of Twer.
According to information sent to Agenzia Fides, during the prayer, Archbishop Stanislaw Nowak of Czestochowa and Fr. Izydor Matuszewski, Prior General of the Pauline Fathers who take care of the Shrine, presented a copy of the icon of the Black Madonna of Czestochowa to the delegation from the Russian Orthodox Church. “This icon of the Black Madonna is a sign of our spiritual closeness, as well as symbol of the two lungs of Europe, Eastern and Western, as Servant of God John Paul II taught in this place,” Archbishop Nowak said in presenting the icon.
During the Second World War, in 1939/1940, the Monastery of San Nil in Stolobienskoje, was used as a Soviet concentration camp, where over 6,000 Polish soldiers were killed. “In this place, in our monastery, we should pray together, Russians and Poles, in front of the holy icon of Our Lady of Czestochowa, to pray for peace and for all those who were killed,” said Arkadij Gubanow, Prior of the Orthodox Monastery of San Nil. (MF/SL) (Agenzia Fides 25/9/2009)