American Czestochowa

This chapter compares Polish and Haitian Marianism at the National Shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, with an emphasis on the evocative and unifying power of this Marian icon for two ethnic groups with quite different histories and identities. It also offers a unique reflection of the changing religious landscape in the United States and of the American Catholic Church. Whereas other ethnic communities have left the Church in droves in recent decades, Poles and Haitians generally remain quite steadfast in their devotion thereto, even as many Polish ethnic parishes in the United States have closed over the last 25 years.