CHARLOTTE — Catholics from across the Carolinas celebrated their Polish heritage Aug. 28 with a special Mass in honor of Our Lady of Czestochowa, one of the titles of Mary based on a unique Polish icon.
The icon of Our Lady of Czestochowa, housed at the Jasna Góra Monastery in Czestochowa, has been a beloved symbol for the Polish people for more than 600 years. Legend traces the icon’s origin to St. Luke the Evangelist, who painted it on a cedar table top from the Holy Family’s house.
More than 400 people attended the Mass at St. Thomas Aquinas Church, offered in English and Polish by Father Matt Nycz, assisted by Deacon James Witulski.
Each year Deacon Witulski and his wife Mary Witulski organize the Polish Mass as a way for the Diocese of Charlotte to commemorate the feast of Our Lady of Czestochowa. The Witulskis, both of Polish ancestry, came to St. Thomas Aquinas Parish from a Polish parish in Rochester, N.Y., and they find it important to keep the Polish traditions alive for others here in the Charlotte diocese.
Father Nycz, who was born in Poland, has been traveling from his parish in New York to Charlotte for over a decade to offer the Mass, hear confessions in Polish, and give people the opportunity to venerate relics of the famed Polish saints John Paul II, Maria Faustina Kowalska and Father Michael Sopocko – all commemorated as “apostles of Divine Mercy.”
— Catholic News Herald. Photos by Anina Puccio | Catholic News Herald
