Jasna Gora Monastery, Czestochowa, Poland

As we travelled through Poland yesterday, I saw the spire of Jasna Gora and remembered visiting the Shrine of the Black Madonna of my last visit, and being very moved by everything I saw there. Our hosts very kindly arranged for some of our group to visit this evening.

The area is well fortified and we entered through the archway depicting the icon, as shown in the top left image. As we entered the church, we saw the painting of Maximilian Kolbe (bottom right), the Polish friar who volunteered to die in the place of a stranger in Auschwitz Concentration Camp.

Jasna Gora is visited by nearly 5 million pilgrims every year. It is the Polish Lourdes, and many come here to pray for healing. Tonight there was a mass taking place in the chapel where the icon is situated, and no flash photography is allowed. The walls are covered in hanging crutches and walking sticks, left by those who have been healed. I noticed a tiny crutch with a toddler's leather boot attached to it (top right). Around the icon hang thousands of golden amber bead necklaces. At the end of the mass, many in the congregation moved to the left side of the chapel, went down on their knees and started to shuffle along a pathway behind the chapel and around the icon. They were praying and many were crying - it was a very solemn. The priest beckoned to us to go and sit within the chapel right in front of the Madonna, with a memorial area to those who had recently died. I will never forget this moment - deeply moving.

The icon is a painting of the Virgin and Child. "Dresses" are placed around it, so that only the faces of Mary and Jesus are visible. Tonight the Madonna was beautifully bejewelled, and I wondered if this was to send a message of hope at a time of great concern in the country.

On leaving the chapel, we entered a long hallway, with a red carpet. Sombre music by Chopin was being played. There were photographic displays of all those who had been killed in the crash on Saturday and a list of names. We queued along the carpet and signed the official book of condolence. There were images of John Paul II and the Black Madonna.