Following the July dinner, President Jacek gave a presentation, illustrating his carpentry work at both Ealing Abbey and at Westminster Cathedral and his devotion to Mary.
The icon known as Our Lady of Częstochowa or the Black Madonna is not only a significant religious icon but a national symbol for Poland of its nation and culture. The Black Madonna is said to have miraculously saved the monastery of Jasna Góra from the Swedish invasion in 1655.
Ealing Abbey had to be extensively renovated after World War II. As there was a large presence of Poles in the London Borough of Ealing, a wooden chapel featuring a copy of the original icon was erected in the Abbey.
The original chapel was destroyed in the 1990’s as thieves tried to steal the votive offerings. Jacek’s friend Marek, a Polish Knight of Malta, was alerted and approach Jacek asking to use his carpentry skills to create a modern version of the chapel. Marek had already commissioned the new painting
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Before the English Reformation, the major Marian site of devotion in England was at Walsingham. The original shrine was destroyed in 1538 during the Reformation under King Henry VIII. The historic statue of Our Lady was seized and taken to London to be burned.
Following the restoration of the Catholic hierarchy in England and Wales the ruined Slipper Chapel was restored in 1850. In 1922 a new Anglican vicar of Walsingham, Father Alfred Hope Patten, commissioned and enshrined a new, specially carved statue of Our Lady of Walsingham.
In 1954, Cardinal Griffin commissioned a new hand carved wooden copy of the statue of Our Lady of Walsingham to be placed in a position of honour in the Westminster Cathedral. The statue did not remain static, and extensive use resulted in widespread damage. Consequently, the statue was placed in the Westminster Cathedral Crypt out of public view.
Jacek’s friend Marek, who had already commissioned a replacement lily for the statue, alerted him of the situation and a new project began. The statue was fully restored and a new pedestal, based on a pre-reformation marble altar now in a church in Chipping Norton, was designed by Jacek. The Polish Knights of Malta commissioned an oak copy of the original.
In 2016, the statue of Our Lady of Walsingham was formally placed and enthroned in its permanent, prominent position in Westminster Cathedral’s Chapel of St George and the English Martyrs.
