>>645068

>en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Madonna

There are about 400-500 Black Madonnas in Europe, depending on how they are classified. There are at least 180 Vierges Noires in France, and there are hundreds of non-medieval copies as well.

In the cathedral at Chartres, there were two Black Madonnas: Notre Dame de Pilar, a 1508 dark walnut copy of a 13th-century silver Madonna, standing atop a high pillar, surrounded by candles; and Notre Dame de Sous-Terre, a replica of an original destroyed during the French Revolution.

>>645084

>>645125

>catholicnewsagency.com/news/who-is-the-black-madonna-and-why-is-she-so-important-63754

Rome, Italy, Jul 19, 2016 / 03:02 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Our Lady of Czestochowa, also known as the “Black Madonna,” will be one of Pope Francis' primary stops during his visit to Poland at the end of this month for the global World Youth Day gathering.

>>645125

>>645199

>historytoday.com/richard-cavendish/first-general-jesuits

Saint Ignatius of Loyola began his career as an ambitious army officer with, as he recalled, ‘a great and vain desire to win renown’. In time he would become a general, but of a religious order rather than in the army. The youngest son of an upper-crust Spanish Basque family,

The idea made a profound impression on him and he went to Montserrat and hung up his sword and dagger in homage to the famed statue there of the

Black Madonna and as symbols of his resolve to change his life.

By this time he had attracted followers and with them he founded a religious order, the Society of Jesus. He won the approval of Pope Paul III in 1540 and his fellow members duly chose him as their General.

The Jesuits have had their staunch defenders and their fierce opponents ever since.