Abstract

In the old abbey in Ląd an Warta, valuable historical evidence of the Polish independence fighters in the January Uprising and the patriotic movement of the Polish nation in the second half of the 19th century has been preserved. The Capuchins also took part in the struggle for independence. In 1850 they took over the church and monastery in Ląd, which previously belonged to the Cistercians. The Capuchins laid out the church park. In 1859 the figure of the Immaculate Mother of God designed by Antoni Sleminski was placed there (Fig. 2). During the renovation of the church, the Capuchins renewed, among other things, the baroque altar of Mary (Fig. 1). The image of the Immaculate Mary by Jacenty Sachowicz will be built into the altar. They also donated the new antependium with the embroidered religious-patriotic symbols (Fig. 8). On July 13, 1863 a battle took place in Ląd between the cavalry detachment under the command of General Edmund Taczanowski and the Muscovites. The three insurgents who fell in battle are buried in the church park near the statue of Mary. An inscription on the lantern base of the church dome commemorates this event (Fig. 9). In 1864 the Russians sent the Capuchins from Ląd to Siberia. In 1890 a diocesan congregation was formed in the church in Ląd. In 1900, the pastor Teodor Fibich had the Marian altar in the church renovated and a replica of the Czestochowa Madonna by Franciszek Jedrzejczyk installed (Fig. 10). The picture of the Madonna of Tschensochau in Ląd indicates the great importance of the cult of Mary as the queen of the Polish crown. The Polish people prayed to the Madonna at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century especially for the independence of the fatherland.