The image of our Lady of Latyczów in the Diocese of Łuck

Maria Dębowska

Abstract

In 1920, the Poles withdrew from Podole under the pressure of Bolshevik army. Leaving Latyczów with the Polish army, the local parish priest took the miraculous image of Our Lady of Latyczów. For ten years it was in the chapel of the middle school of Cecylia Plater-Zyberkówna Educational Society in Warsaw. In 1930, the Bishop of Łuck Adolf Piotr Szelążek decided to transfer it to the Diocese of Łuck. As the high altar in the Cathedral of Łuck had not been adapted to the image yet, it was placed for a few months in the parish church of Luboml. The image was in Luboml for several years, longer than it had been expected. Only at the end of 1935, after receiving disturbing news from Warsaw, Bishop Szelążek ordered to transport it secretly to Lutsk and hang it in the high altar, which had not been ready yet. The new high altar in the Cathedral Church of Łuck was ready only for the celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of Bishop Szelążk’s priesthood (10-11 September 1938). It was designed probably by an architect from Warsaw, prof. Kazimierz Skórewicz, and another architect - Władysław Sawicki – improved some details and oversaw its installation in the Cathedral of Łuck. The image of Our Lady of Latyczów was in the Cathedral of Łuck for ten years. A few months after the end of World War II, on 6 August 1945, it was secretly deported from Łuck by the members of the Cathedral Chapter of Łuck and non-habited nuns of the Congregation of the Sisters Servants of Mary Immaculate, who were leaving Volhynia. Finally, the image found a haven in Lublin. For several years it was in the chapels of the Sisters Servants - first at 3 Bernardyńska Street (1945-1984), then at 9 I Armii Wojska Polskiego Street (1984-2014). Since 2014 the image has been worshiped in the Church of Our Lady of the Rosary in Bursztynowa Street.