Sanctuary of Our Lady of the Dawn Gate in Skarżysko-Kamienna
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Two Gates of Dawn, One Mother The feast of Our Lady of the Dawn Gate, celebrated in the Catholic Church on 16 November, evokes nostalgic thoughts for Vilnius for many Poles, especially those from the East, and for Mary present there in her miraculous image. The Mother of Christ is venerated in this well-known image as Our Lady of Mercy, Queen of Poland and Grand Duchess of Lithuania….
When Vilnius was surrounded by a wall and nine defensive gates between 1503 and 1522, one of them, with an image of the Mother of God hanging above it, was called the Gates of Dawn . Certainly no one imagined that this place and the Icon of the Mother of God would in future be surrounded by such great veneration and devotion. In 1626, the Discalced Carmelites opened a monastery in the vicinity of the Gate of Dawn, and began to spread devotion to Mary. It is worth mentioning that on 2 July 1927, Cardinal Aleksander Kakowski, with the participation of President Ignacy Mościcki, Polish Primate Cardinal August Hlond, Marshal Józef Piłsudski, bishops and clergy, performed the solemn coronation of the painting.
This is one of the few images of Mary in which she is depicted alone, without her Divine Son. St Maximilian Kolbe took advantage of this and composed this prayer:
Our Lady of Ostra Brama,
you do not have the infant Jesus in your arms,
then take me in your arms
and carry me happily through life’.
The inscription on the gate is also worth noting. It is a brief invocation to Mary: ‘Mother of Mercy, under your protection we take refuge’.
The Gate of Dawn image is famous for its great graces and is held in great veneration. From year to year, the number of pilgrims visiting this special place also increases. However, not everyone is able to come to Vilnius, so many copies have been painted and are found in selected churches in Poland so that the faithful can worship the Merciful Mary. Skarżysko Such a copy is in our Sanctuary in Skarżysko-Kamienna. With prayerful labour and sacrifice we built the Gate of Dawn, the church, the Pilgrim House and the House of Mercy. The Sanctuary very quickly became a place of prayer at various times of the day and night and a destination for pilgrimages.
Here we learn from Mary the contemplation of Jesus and the imagination of mercy. Praying together and bending down to help others in need was noted by the Ordinary Bishop and he called this Shrine the Polish Ain Karim, where, following Mary’s example, we try to help people from birth to old age.
A memorable day was 2 July 2005, the date of the Coronation of the Icon of the Mother of Mercy at Skarżysko’s Gate of Dawn. Pilgrims arrived in greater numbers, and the number of faithful praying before the image of the Patroness of our small homeland also increased. We thank Our Lady for her protection and entrust ourselves to her . The readiness of the heart to bring love to others has just been renewed here. Voluntary work, which had not been possible for many years, is developing. I am very grateful to all of you, dear people, who visit this shrine, for the kindness and goodness you show to the Shrine in Skarżysko-Kamienna and for your large-scale support of the charitable works we carry out.
We repay your debt of gratitude by praying every Wednesday during the novena and the Mass celebrated for your intention. May the One who shines at the Gate of Dawn grant you and your loved ones many graces. I remember you in prayer. Let us not ask what Our Lady should do for us, but what we should do for her as a family and as a nation. God has placed great possibilities within us and we just need to put them into action. So let us awaken other people, let us help them discover their humanity. May God be thanked for the coronation, for honouring Skarżysko-Kamienna. The fruits of this great event are visible.
