Our Lady of Šiluva

Our Lady of Šiluva

Our Lady of Šiluva is Roman Catholic icon of the Virgin Mary in Šiluva, Lithuania. A cathedral of the same name has been built and is dedicated to it. The icon is highly venerated in Lithuania and is often called "Lithuania's greatest treasure".[1] Šiluva is one of the most important pilgrimage sites in Lithuania with its ancient tradition of the Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, popularly called "Šilinės".

Background

Marian devotion at Šiluva goes back almost to the beginning of Christianity in Lithuania. Grand Duke Jogaila was baptized Catholic in 1387 when he married the queen of neighboring Poland. Later he and his successors worked to spread the Christian faith in their territory, which until then was pagan. They established the ecclesiastical hierarchy, built churches and even personally taught catechism to their subjects.[2]

History

The establishment of a church in Šiluva was the initiative of a nobleman named Petras Gedgaudas who worked in the service of Vytautas the Great. Gedgaudas in 1457 allocated land and other resources for a temple in honor of our Lady. Gedgaudas built a church dedicated to the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Apostles SS. Peter and Bartholomew. Huge crowds of the faithful, even from neighboring Protestant Prussia, would flock to this site to celebrate the indulgenced Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary.[3]

The icon is painted in the Our Lady of the Way style, and is similar to the famous Madonna Salus Populi Romani.[1] According to legend, the miraculous icon was brought to Siluva from Rome in 1457 as a gift to Lithuanian nobleman Petras Gedgaudas.[4] The new church gained fame as a Marian shrine.

By 1532 the population in the vicinity of Šiluva became predominantly Calvinist. In the following decades, many Catholic churches were confiscated and closed.[2] Nevertheless, as long as the old church was open, the people continued to attend the annual Feast until finally the church was closed and destroyed. In the 16th century, a Lutheran pastor complained about members of his flock traveling to Šiluva to attend the indulgenced Catholic feast of the Nativity of Mary. Around the year 1569 the only remaining parish priest, Father John Holubka, hid all the surviving church valuables and documents in an ironclad box which he buried on the grounds of the devastated church.[3]

The Catholics subsequently attempted legal proceedings against the Calvinists, seeking to regain the confiscated church property. The case was complicated by the fact that the Catholic ownership documents had become lost. This issue was resolved in 1608 by the miraculous intervention of the Blessed Virgin Mary, who appeared on the very spot where the church had stood. After her apparition the institutional documents of the Catholic church were found, and in 1622 the case concerning the restitution of Catholic ownership was won. A small wooden church was built in the place where the original church had stood, and the famous indulgenced feasts were reestablished.[3]

Veneration

Pope Pius VI approved devotions to Our Lady of Šiluva and granted indulgences for them.[4]

Pope John Paul II prayed at the shrine in the humble Lithuanian village of Šiluva in 1993, two years after the Baltic nation regained independence. Benedict XVI in 2006 blessed new crowns of gold for a miraculous image of Mary and Jesus at Šiluva. In 2008 he sent a papal legate to take part in festivities at Šiluva to mark the fourth centenary of the Marian apparition.[2]

Within the United States, a significant chapel to Our Lady of Siluva is located within the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C.[5] The Lithuanian emigre and refugee community in the United States, under the leadership of Bishop Vincent Brizgys, organized in 1963 for establishment of this Siluva Chapel, which was dedicated in 1966. It displays the stunning artistry of Lithuanian artists in exile at that time, due to Soviet occupation and repression of Lithuania during and following World War II. Vytautus Kasuba based his statue of Our Lady of Siluva with Christ Child on written accounts of witnesses from 1608. Mosaics by Vytautas Jonynas depict the religious and cultural history of Lithuania in two large mosaic panels in the side walls of the chapel, one showing the traditional image of the "Rūpintojėlis" or Christ the Worrier, and the second depicting information about the Lithuanian prince and saint, Casimir. Mosaics and stained glass by Albinas Elskus decorate the golden ceiling with four images of the Madonna from Lithuanian churches, the altar frontpiece showing traditional Lithuanian wayside crosses and the altar back decoration with blue and golden aura about the statue of Our Lady of Siluva.

In addition to the chapel in Washington D.C., there are several other sites within the United States dedicated to Our Lady of Siluva. These include shrines in Chicago, Illinois;[6] in Elizabeth, New Jersey;[7] in Putnam, Connecticut;[8] and in East St. Louis, Missouri.

Legacy

The Knights of Lithuania have sponsored the establishment of the "Our Lady of Siluva Fund, Inc." during its 2003 National Convention in Brockton, MA, as it celebrated its 90th anniversary. The purpose of the fund is to help promulgate knowledge of and devotion to Our Lady through her appearance at Siluva, Lithuania, in 1608.[9]

Sources

  1. 1 2 University of Dayton
  2. 1 2 3 "Our Lady of Šiluva", Siluva
  3. 1 2 3 The Shrine of our Lady of Šiluva
  4. 1 2 The other faces of Mary: stories, devotions, and pictures of the Holy Virgin around the world by Ann Ball 2004 ISBN 0-8245-2255-9 page 153
  5. ↑ "Our Lady of Siluva", Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception
  6. ↑
  7. ↑
  8. ↑
  9. ↑ "Our Lady of Siluva Fund", Knights of Lithuania

See also

External links

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