Starodruk "Wielkimi wsławiona cudami" opisujący dzieje cudownego obrazu Matki Boskiej z Szamotuł
The Old Print "Wielkimi wsławiona cudami" (Celebrated for Great Miracles), Describing the History of the Miraculous Likeness of Our Lady of Szamotuły

Summary/Abstract: The presented article is devoted to one of the old prints found in the collections of the Main Library at the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań (SD 3964 I). This book, issued in 1687 by Rev. Wojciech Laktański, a Poznań canon, deals with a small, seventeenth-century icon, to this day featured in the church of the Holy Virgin Mary and St. Stanisław the Bishop in Szamotuły. The old print in question contains acts of two commissions, which met in 1665 and 1666 upon the initiative of Stefan Wierzbowski, Bishop of Poznań, in order to decide whether the painting could be presented to the public as miraculous; the other document are accounts of the favours obtained by the faithful, who sought the help of Our Lady of Szamotuły in 1675, 1686 and 1687. The old print constitutes the most important source for the recreation of the history of the Szamotuły painting from the time when it found itself in the Commonwealth. The original owner of the icon was a certain Ruthenian prince. During one of the wars waged by King Jan Kazimierz against Muscovy, the icon was seized by Aleksander Wolff, royal courtier and leaseholder of Szamotuły, who subsequently placed it in his castle chapel. One day, Wolff noticed bloody tears flowing down the face of the Madonna. News about the supernatural phenomenon rapidly reached the diocese. The circumstances of the miracle were examined by a special commission, which ordered the transference of the icon to the collegiate treasury. Yet another commission permitted a public display of the painting, which was installed in a specially built altar. From that time, the cult of Our Lady of Szamotuły developed uninterruptedly, reaching its apogee at the turn of the seventeenth century. Cited accounts indicate that the supernatural events usually concerned healing.

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