The replica icon of Our Lady of Czestochowa will be brought to the Catholic Church of St. Luke in Stroudsburg and venerated at all the parish’s liturgies on Saturday and Sunday, February 26^th and 27^th. The original icon has a legendary past that led in the 14^th century to its housing at the Jasna Góra monastery near the town of Czestochowa. Under this title, the Blessed Mother has been considered the protector of Poland through centuries of invasions and wars. Devotion to the Madonna has flourished among Polish-American Catholics and efforts to build a shrine in her honor began in the 1950s. Finally, in 1966, a new and spacious church was erected in Doylestown, Pennsylvania to service the growing numbers of pilgrims. The replica icon will be brought to the Poconos from that Doylestown National Shrine at the request of the Catholics who celebrate Sunday Mass in the Polish language at St. Luke’s. As explained by Deacon Phil Zimich, himself of Polish ancestry, “This veneration will be in two languages to join our Polish worshippers with the rest of our parish in a testimony to our one faith.” The visit has special meaning this February when the threat of invasion and war are growing near the Polish homeland. St. Luke’s Church is located at the corner of 9^th and Main Streets in Stroudsburg. Call 570-421-9097 for more information.