Missouri's Black Madonna Shrine Is a Labor of Love [PHOTOS]

In 1927, a Franciscan Missionary from Poland named Bronislaus Luszcz was sent to the foothills of the Ozarks to help build an infirmary. Called upon by John J. Glennon, Archbishop of St. Louis at the time, Luszcz and his fellow missionaries were tasked with turning an abandoned convenant into a place of care.

While clearing an area for a chapel, Luszcz hung a portrait of the “Black Madonna of Częstochowa” above an altar. Inspired by pilgrimages he witnessed growing up in Poland, he began building his own grottoes & shrines surrounding the portrait using locally mined Missouri tiff rock.

Luszcz devoted the next 23 years of his life consistently adding more material into the shrine until he died of a heat stroke in 1960 while working on his creation. The shrine is located at 100 St Josephs Hill Rd, Pacific, MO 63069 and is open to the public 9 a.m. - 4 p.m. seven days a week.