Kodeń

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Mother of God of Kodeń

Kodeń is a village and the site of a famous Marian shrine in eastern Poland, on the Western Bug river which forms the border between Poland and Belarus. Administratively, it belongs to Biała Podlaska County in Lublin Voivodeship. It has about 1,900 inhabitants (2006).

First written mention comes from the 16th century, stating a settlement existed here already a century ago. This settlement was purchased by the voivode of Podlachia Jan Sapieha, who fortified it and in 1511 established a town under Magdeburg law.

In the 17th century the fourth owner of Kodeń Mikołaj Sapieha brought to the town the wonder working icon portraying the Spanish statue of Our Lady of Guadalupe, said to have been painted by Archbishop Saint Augustine of Canterbury at the request of Pope Saint Gregory the Great. According to the local legend, Mikołaj Sapieha stole this image from Pope Urban VIII in 1630, however afterwards the Pope lifted the excommunication and gave the icon along with many relics to the basilica in Kodeń in recognition of Sapiehas actions in defense of the Church. There are no documents confirming those events and most likely the icon was simply purchased during a pilgrimage to Spain. The icon was crowned in 1723 by the bishop Stefan Rupniewski with crowns conferred by Pope Innocent XIII.

In the dire time of the Partition of Poland, Kodeń fell under Russian rule. In 1869 the town was striped of its city rights and in 1875 the basilica was occupied by Russians and the icon had to be taken to Polands greatest Marian shrine in Jasna Góra where it was relatively safe. In 1905 following a weakening of the tsarist regime the faithful could return to the basilica and after Poland regained independence in 1919 the parish was reestablished. In 1927 Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate settled in Kodeń and restored the basilica to its former glory and the icon was after 52 years returned. In 1973 the church of St. Anne was granted the status of a minor basilica by Pope Paul VI.

Other sites of interest in Kodeń aside from the basilica include: the 16th century gothic church of the Holy Ghost with elements of renaissance and baroque, originally Greek Catholic, but in the 1960s adopted as filial church of the Roman Catholic parish due to the lack of Eastern Rite faithful; the cemetery chapel of St. Laurentius; the Calvary of Kodeń; palace ruins.