Our history

1225

Bishop Bartholomew of Pecs (Hungary) builds the monastery of St James on Mount Ürög in the forests of Patacs for hermits and gives them a rule.

1246

Eusebius, Canon of Esztergom, renounces his ecclesiastical dignity, distributes his goods to the poor and settles in the Pilis mountains where he will meet numerous hermits.

1250

Eusebius builds the Monastery of the Holy Cross in Pilis (Hungary), where he gathers the local hermits. This community is merged with the monastery of St. James into a single congregation, and Eusebius is elected provincial.

1253

Bishop Bartholomew died.

1256

Blessed Eusebius is elected the first provincial of the order.

1262

Blessed Eusebius goes to Pope Urban IV in Rome to ask for his approval of the Order and the granting of the Rule of St. Augustine. He is helped by St. Thomas Aquinas. Despite the Pope favor, approval has to wait. The Pope calls Bishop Paul of Veszpré to investigate the property status of Pauline monasteries. It turns out that the monks do not have sufficient material resources to meet the requirements of the Augustinian rule. In view of this fact, Bishop Paul gives the Paulines a new temporary Rule, intended to complement the Rule of Bishop Bartholomew.

1270

Death of Eusebius of Esztergom, founder and organiser of the Pauline Order, at the Monastery of the Holy Cross.

1308

Cardinal Gentilis de Mone Florido (legate of Pope Clement V), approves the Order of Saint Paul the First Hermit and gives it the Rulę of Saint Augustine. Augustine.

1309

The Chapter assembled at the Monastery of St. Lawrence near Buda develops the Order. Lawrence near Buda drafts the first monastic Constitutions. Provincial Lawrence is elected the first General of the Order.

1341

Father Nicholas the Germany, elected General of the Order for the second time, introduces the white colour of the habit into the Order.

1382

Prince Władysław Opolczyk founds the first Pauline monastery in Poland - at Jasna Góra. Soon other monasteries were founded on Polish soil, giving rise to the Polish Pauline Province.

1429

1429-1450

Construction of the Chapel of Our Lady at Jasna Góra Monastery

1463

Consecration of the great Jasna Góra Church (today the Basilica) of The Holy Cross and the Blessed Virgin Mary.

1472

Jan Długosz, a Krakow canon, founds the Pauline Monastery on Skałka near Krakow. Polish King Casimir Jagiellon and his family were admitted to the Pauline confraternity. Among the royal sons admitted to the confraternity was St Casimir, proclaimed the patron saint of the Pauline confraternity years later.

1474

St. Casimir is admitted to the Pauline confraternity. Years later, he will be declared its patron.

1493

Queen Isabella I of Castile entrusts the Pauline Fathers with the work of evangelizing the newly discovered America during the second Columbus expedition. Soon the evangelizing work begun by the Pauline Fathers is undertaken by other orders.

1526

The defeat of the Hungarian army at Mohacz; the Turkish army destroys most of the Pauline monasteries in Hungary, many monks suffer martyrdom̨. St Lawrence Monastery near Buda, the seat of the Order's generals, is destroyed and the relics of St Paul the first Hermit are burnt.

1537

Cardinal George Martinuzzi, Pauline, publishes the Pauline Missal in Venice.

1540

The Pauline breviary is issued

1568

Father Nicolas of Wilkowiecka publishes the first work in Polish on the history of the Jasna Góra icon.

1600

The Paulines, obeying the Council of Trent, renounce the use of their liturgical books and adopt the renewed Roman liturgy.

1644

The General Chapter, meeting at St Wolfgang's Monastery near Bratislava, adopted the new Constitutions of the Order.

1655

Defence of Jasna Góra under the command of Fr Augustine Kordecki during the Swedish invasion of the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth.

1656

King Jan Kazimierz makes his vows in the Lviv Cathedral and proclaims Mary the Queen of Poland.

1717

Coronation of the image of Our Lady of Jasna Góra with papal crowns, the first such act in the world outside Rome.

1724

The general chapter of Maria Thall reforms the Constitutions, implemented at the next chapter in 1727.

1786

Dissolution of the Order in Austrian territories under the decree of Emperor Joseph II.

1793

Prussian troops under the command of Field Marshal Mólendort take the Jasna Góra fortress.

1806

Napoleon’s army, which included Poles and French, takes the Jasna Góra fortress.

1819

Partial dissolution of monasteries in the Russian partition.

1864

The suppression of monasteries in the Russian partition by the decree of Tsar Alexander II after the January Uprising. Of all the previous Pauline monasteries, only Jasna Góra in the Russian partition and the monastery on Skalka in Kraków in the Austrian partition remained.

1904

Pope Pius X institutes the feast of Our Lady of Czestochowa.

1910

The second coronation of the Jasna Gora Icon with the crowns of Pope Pius X after the theft of the previous crowns in 1909.

1920

After the monastery in Lesna Podlaska was recovered in 1919, the Jasna Góra, Skalčne and Lesna monasteries were united into one community with Father Piotr Markiewicz as General of the Order.

1930

Pope Pius XI approves new Constitutions of the Order.

1939

1939-1945

During World War II, a German military garrison is stationed at Jasna Góra. The sanctuary survived the time of occupation undamaged.

1941

The solemn Act of Enthronement of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in the community of the Pauline Order was performed in the Jasna Gora Monastery.

1951

Fr. Michael Zembrzuski, a Pauline Father, comes to the United States, bringing a faithful copy of the Icon of Our Lady of Czestochowa (blessed by Pope St John XXIII), hoping to establish an American Shrine to Our Lady of Czestochowa, similar to the one in Poland.

1953

The Sanctuary of Our Lady of Czestochowa in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, USA - the ‘American Czestochowa’ - is established.

1956

Celebration of the 300th anniversary of the Royal Vows of Jan Kazimierz. Jasna Góra Vows of the Polish Nation.

1966

Jasna Góra celebrations of the Millennium of the Baptism of Poland. Act of the Surrender of Poland into the Maternal Slavery of Mary, Mother of the Church, for the freedom of the Church of Christ.

1973

The new Constitutions of the Order, reformed in the spirit of the Second Vatican Council, are put into effect.

1979

The first pilgrimage of Pope John Paul II to Jasna Góra. The Pope visits Skałka in Kraków.

1981

Founding of the Monastery and Shrine of the Jasna Góra Mother of Mercy in Berrima - Penrose Park, Australia. Beginning of the Pauline ministry in this country.

1983

Second pilgrimage of Pope John Paul II to Jasna Góra.

1986

The Religious Constitutions are implemented, revised anew in connection with the promulgation of the new Code of Canon Law by Pope John Paul II.

1987

Third pilgrimage of Pope John Paul II to Jasna Góra.

1990

Establishment of the first Pauline missionary outpost in the so-called ‘African Częstochowa’ - Centocow in South Africa, where the image of Our Lady of Jasna Gora has resided since 1888.

1991

The 4th pilgrimage of Pope John Paul II to Jasna Góra as part of the 6th World Youth Day.

1997

Fifth pilgrimage of Pope John Paul II to Jasna Góra.

1999

The 6th pilgrimage of Pope John Paul II to Jasna Góra.

2004

The Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments approved the new Liturgical Calendar of the Pauline Order, allowing the inclusion under the date of 20 January of the Feast of Blessed Eusebius of Esztergom - presbyter and founder of the Order, officially approving his cult.

2005