Around the image of the Black Madonna numerous legends and miraculous stories have accumulated over the centuries. I report the best known:
the author of the painting would be Saint Luke, who painted the icon on a cypress table top from the home of the holy family. The date is even fixed: in 46 AD. It was then transferred from Jerusalem to Constantinople by order of Constantine the Great (emperor from 306 to 337). From here – with subsequent donations and after many hardships – she would arrive in Poland, where she was entrusted by Prince Vladislaus of Opole to the custody of the monks of St Paul the First Hermit in 1382.
The first pilgrimages began immediately. Soon the small church that contained it was insufficient to accommodate the faithful, and so, under the reign of Vladislao Jagiello in the early 1400s, a Gothic chapel was built. This original Gothic part of the chapel (now a presbytery) is bordered by a huge grate.
