CZĘSTOCHOWA, DIOCESIS of. — In Poland, erected on 28 October 1925. Suffragan of Cracow. First bishop: Teodor Kubina.
Area: 9,443 sq. km.; inhabitants, 1,028,000, of whom 1,016,000 are Catholics. Parishes: 215. Churches: 304, of which parish churches: 215; convents, 8; chapels, 29; diocesan priests, 354, of whom bishops: 2; parish priests and administrators, 201; vicars, 67; catechists, 21. Priests from other dioceses, 5. Religious priests, 57. Women religious, 500. Seminarians, 94. Religious houses: male, 12; female, 54. Institutes of instruction and education: male, 1; female, 5. Institutions of charity, assistance, and care: 16. Churches destroyed, 9; damaged, 14; permanently closed, 93. Pilgrimage centers: Jasna Góra (Bright Mountain), the principal shrine of all Poland, where the image of the Black Virgin, called that of St. Luke, is venerated; it was brought in 1382 by Ladislaus of Opole from Belź (Red Russia) to C. and placed in the convent of the Pauline Fathers, who had come that same year from Hungary. Devotion to Our Lady is also linked with the so-called “Deluge” of the Swedish Protestant forces in 1655, from which she saved Poland. The church of the Pauline Fathers’ convent dates from the seventeenth century. The chapel of the image was founded by Primate Maciej Łubiński in 1644. Other pilgrimage centers: Gidle, św. Anna, Leśniów.