OUR HISTORY

Bishop Bartholomew built the monastery of St. James on the Ürög’s Mountain in Patacs forest for the hermits and gave them the rule of life. This year is considered as the beginning of our Order.

Blessed Eusebius renounces the canon of Esztergom, sells the goods, gives the money to the poor, and settles in the Pilisium forests as a hermit where he meets other hermits.

Blessed Eusebius builds the monastery of St. Cross in the Pilis Mountains, where he gathers hermits living in the area. The monastery of St. James merges with the monastery of St. Cross, creating one congregation of hermits.

Bishop Bartholomew died.

Blessed Eusebius is elected the first provincial of the order.

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's 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.

Blessed Eusebius dies in the Monastery of St. Cross in Klastrompuszta in the Pilis Mountains.

Gentilis de Mone Florido, as legate of Pope Clement V, approves the Order of Saint Paul the First Hermit, giving it the Rule of St. Augustine.

The Chapter, gathered in the Monastery of St. Lawrence near Buda, develops the first monastic constitutions. Provincial Lawrence (the fourth successor of Blessed Eusebius in the office of provincial) is appointed the first general of the order.

Fr. Nicolas the German, the general of the order, introduces white habits for the Pauline Fathers of all provinces.

Foundation of the monastery at Jasna Góra.

Construction of the Chapel of Our Lady at Jasna Góra Monastery

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

Foundation of the monastery at Skałka, in Krakow.

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

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.

Defeat of the Hungarian troops at Mochacz. Dozens of Pauline monasteries are demolished, archives and libraries burned down, and many monks are
martyred.

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

The Pauline breviary is issued

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

The general Chapter in Lepoglava adopts the missal and breviary reformed after the Council of Trent.

General Chapter gathers in the Monastery of St. Wolfgang near Bratislava and adopts new Constitutions.

Defense of Jasna Góra under the command of Father Augustyn Kordecki during the Swedish invasion of Poland.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Dissolution of some monasteries in the Russian partition.

By order of Tsar Alexander II, monasteries in the Russian partition are closed. The execution of this order takes place on the night of November 27- 28, 1864. Of all the existing Pauline monasteries, only Jasna Góra and the monastery on Skałka in Krakow under Austrian rule remained.

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

Re-coronation of the Jasna Góra icon with the crowns of Pope Pius X after the theft of the previous papal crowns in 1909.

In the face of the invasion of Poland by Soviet Russia, at the call of the Pauline Fathers, numerous pilgrims come to Jasna Góra, begging for victory over
the enemy. The nationwide prayer ends with the news of the Miracle on the Vistula, the defeat of the Bolsheviks on the outskirts of Warsaw on August 15. In the same year, the first general chapter of the reborn order is called, after a break of almost a century and a half.

Pope Pius XI approved new monastic Constitutions.

During World War II, a German military garrison is stationed at Jasna Góra. The sanctuary survives without damage during the Occupation.

In the Jasna Góra Monastery, the solemn Act of Enthronement of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in the community of the Pauline Order is performed.

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.

Father Michael Zembrzuski is granted permission from the Holy See and Cardinal O’Hara of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia to establish a monastery and shrine on the land, which he previously purchased in Doylestown, PA.

A small wooden barn chapel is dedicated to Our Lady of Czestochowa with the celebration of the first Mass, thus marking the beginning of the Shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa in Doylestown, PA. The dedication of the first chapel creates a new center of Marian devotion and a place of pilgrimage. Many pilgrim groups start coming to this little Shrine. The first pilgrimage ever recorded comes from St. Laurentius parish in Philadelphia on June 26, 1955, for the dedication ceremony of the barn chapel.

Jasna Góra Vows of the Polish Nation

With a great crowd of pilgrims, in the presence of the President of the United States, Lyndon Baines Johnson and his family, representatives of the Catholic Church and State officials, Archbishop John Krol solemnly dedicates the new Shrine in the honor of Our Lady of Czestochowa in Doylestown.

Cardinal Karol Wojtyla, Archbishop of Cracow (future Pope John Paul II) visits the Shrine of American Czestochowa.

The Constitutions, reformed in the spirit of the Second Vatican Council, are implemented.

The first pilgrimage of Pope John Paul II to Jasna Góra.

The second pilgrimage of Pope John Paul II to Jasna Góra.

The Monastic Constitutions, revised following the promulgation of the new Code of Canon Law by Pope John Paul II, are introduced.

The third pilgrimage of Pope John Paul II to Jasna Góra.

The fourth pilgrimage of Pope John Paul II to Jasna Góra as part of the VI World Youth Day.

The fifth pilgrimage of Pope John Paul II to Jasna Góra.

The sixth pilgrimage of Pope John Paul II to Jasna Góra.

The Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments approve the new Liturgical Calendar of the Pauline Fathers, in which it allows the inclusion of the feast of Bl. Eusebius of Esztergom, presbyter and founder of the order, which is tantamount to an official approval of our devotion to him.

John Paul II, a day before his death, donates new “Totus Tuus” crowns for the icon of Jasna Góra.

Pope Benedict XVI visits Jasna Góra.

Pope Francis visits Jasna Góra.

Coronation of the Image of Our Lady of Czestochowa in Doylestown.