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Replica of the Black Madonna, which is also referred to as the Virgin of Czestochowa or Our Lady of Czestochowa.
The icon is regarded as being miraculous because of the many miracles attributed to prayers offered before it.
Belz's religious inheritance began sometime between the 11th and 12th centuries, when the Ruthenian Prince Leo brought the Black Madonna icon to his royal palace, according to legend.
Prince Leo is believed to have received the icon either from the Byzantine Emperor in Constantinople or Charlemagne, based on which legend you prefer to believe.
And apparently, legend says it was St. Luke who painted the icon upon a table built by Jesus Christ.
In 1382, a Muslim nation in the Crimea known as the Tatars had invaded Belz. During the raid, a Tatar arrow pierced through the Virgin Mary's neck, a mar that is visible to this day.
Fearful that the icon would perish, Prince Ladislaus Opolski decided to take and hide it in one of his castles in the Silesia region of Poland.
The icon eventually wound up in Czestochowa, a city in southern Poland and through the centuries, the Black Madonna of Czestochowa emerged as Poland's most revered religious symbol.
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