The main events today for the Pope’s visit to Poland are/were: Mass in Warsaw, a visit to the Jasna Gora shrine –

In 1384, Ladislaus of Opole, a prince of the Jagiellonian dynasty, built a special chapel to house the Black Madonna, entrusting the painting to monks from Hungary’s Pauline order. Records of large pilgrimages date from 1627, when townsfolk from Gliwice came to thank Mary for saving their town from the Danish army.

But the monastery’s intricate fortifications also made it an important defense bastion. Jasna Gora withstood attacks by Hussite marauders and Swedish armies and even survived explosive charges left by retreating Germans in 1944.

In the 1980s, despite communist-imposed obstacles, pilgrimages increased fourfold, underlining Jasna Gora’s role as a place where religious devotion and national survival were fused.

At the Shrine, he will have a: " Meeting with the Men and Women Religious, seminarians and representatives of Movements of consecrated life"

The Mass is over, but the visit to the Shrine will occur at 11am Eastern. Saturday is Pope John Paul and Divine Mercy day, and then Sunday is the visit to Auschwitz.