Lumen 2018

tles hang six paintings depicting the Most Holy Virgin Mary with appropriate invocations from the Litany of Our Lady of Loretto. The depiction of the Holy Trinity on the ceiling of the presbytery capti- vates the observer with its composition. At the intersection of the main aisle and the transept, there is the Marian Star with the inscrip- tions of the Ten Virtues of the Blessed Virgin Mary — a symbol of the original rule of the Congregation of Marians. 96 The Shrine of Our Lady of Gozlin is located in the heart of Po- wisle, in the basin of the Vistula River, between the settlements of Sobienie-Jeziory and Wilga, near the road from Warsaw to Deblin, at the western end of the Diocese of Siedlce. The historic church stands among acacias, chestnuts, and lindens. Nearby is a small monastery-rectory, further down — a garden, with picturesque meadows and ponds behind. In 1982 and the following years, the polychromy of the church and the entire building on the outside were restored. The walls and the shingles were properly treated and preserved. The church received new oak ground beams and under- pinning brickwork, the towers were covered with copper sheeting. In 1986, with the permission of the chief conservator in Siedlce, the miraculous icon of Our Lady of Gozlin, was also thoroughly restored and preserved. 97 Today, we can see it in all its beauty as it hangs in the side altar on the left side of the church. It is covered by a movable painting of St. Nicholas. Did the Marians have any other houses during the lifetime of their Founder? They probably had one in Ruthenia and one in Lithuania, which can be gleaned from a letter written by Alexander Zaluski to one of the cardinals of the Roman Curia, in which Zaluski asked that the Marians be granted papal approbation, so that they might de- velop in the territories inhabited by the adherents to the Russian Or- thodox faith. 98 S TANISLAUS P APCZYNSKI 392