Our Lady of Consolation from Hodowica

Image of Our Lady of Consolation

The image of Our Lady of Consolation from Hodowica is a copy of a little statue of St. Mary with the Child, which was located in a roadside chapel near Olomouc in Moravia, between Eichhorn (Veveří) and Braunseifen (Ryžoviště).

In 1798, one of the copies, painted with watercolors, went to Zatoka family in Basiówka, a village belonging to the parish of Hodowica. In 1839, the farmer’s daughter, got married to Jędrzej Rączkowski and she took the painting with her to Hodowica. Years passed and the image of St. Mary was so damaged that the spouses were thinking about replacing it by new one. However, on January 25th, 1852 it was noticed that the painting was unexpectedly renewed, taking on vivid colours. The convened church commissions did not find any interference by third parties. The painting was placed in the church in Hodowica. Poles, Slovaks, Ruthenians and Czechs prayed before it, repeatedly experiencing the miraculous help of Madonna.

As a result of post-war (WW II) boarders shift, Polish population was transferred from their settlements to new territories in Western Poland. Habitants from Lwów region were expatriated to Wrocław and other locations in Lower Silesia and Pomerania. The Our LAby from Hodowica painting was taken by Fr. Jarosław Chomicki, the last parish priest in Hodowica to Jaworzyna Śląska near Wrocław. Initially a picture has been hidden, then placed in the private chapel of Archbishop Bolesław Kominek in Wrocław. Year 1960 was a turning point: the image of Our Lady of Consolation from Hodowica was donated to Capuchins – Franciscan friars as custodians in the parish church of St. Augustine in Wrocław. On April 30, 1961, Archbishop Andrzej Wronka raised the parish church to the status of a Marian Sanctuary for the Lower Silesia region.

The small image (20.6×29.6 cm) is a rectangular graphic in the technique of woodcut coloured with watercolor, depicting the figure of the Madonna with the Child in her arms adored by two angels (Seraphim) on the sides. There are small golden crowns on the heads of these figures. Above the head of the Mother of God is the initial of the name of Mary. At the foot of the Madonna, against the background of a hilly landscape, in a semicircle of rays, a shrine surrounded by a glow is visible between two trees. On August 14, 2016, during the Holy Mass In the field in front of the church, an enlarged copy of the painting of Our Lady of Consolation was handed over to the inhabitants of Hodowica.