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Czestochowa that her husband, a retired U.S. Navy captain, acquired in Poland.
"He was very proud of his Polish heritage," Fr. DiMascola said.
The cannonball has been enshrined in a reliquary next to a statue of St. Maximilian Kolbe, a Polish priest who died in a
World War II concentration camp. The reliquary was made by Our Lady of Czestochowa parishioner Larry Roux and features gold-painted Gothic finials and a Polish eagle. Inside the reliquary above the cannonball is a small silver
shield with an image of Our Lady of Czestochowa.
Placing the heavy cannonball from the siege of Czestochowa in a church dedicated to Our Lady of Czestochowa reinforces a
sense of continuity and a sense of history, Fr. DiMascola said. "It's a contact point with the great miracle of Czestochowa, the intervention of Mary for the Polish nation and for the Polish people."
In 1655 a strong Swedish army appeared before Czestochowa and demanded its surrender. "It would be the final blow to the
Polish Kingdom and give the non-Catholic Swedes complete control of Eastern Europe," Fr. DiMascola explained. But when the demand was rejected, the Swedes sought to take the fortress monastery by force.
"Its defenders consisted of some 160 soldiers, a few gunners, 50 monks and a number of local gentry and peasants who had
sought refuge in the monastery with their wives and children," he continued. "This small force, under the spirited leadership of the saintly prior of the Pauline monks, Augustyn Kordecki, withstood a 40-day siege by an army of
over 10,000 battle-hardened Swedes."
Finally, on Christmas Day, after the prior sent the Swedes some Polish Christmas wafers called oplatek, a vision of Our
Lady of Czestochowa appeared over the monastery, covering it with her protective cloak. "The Swedish army withdrew in terror," Fr. DiMascola said. They were later driven from Poland.
"To have contact (through the cannonball) with something so historic is exciting," Fr. DiMascola said. "It's like having a
piece of the Liberty Bell or the Berlin Wall, although in this case, it has great religious implications as well as patriotic and historical."
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