Madonna

The gothic statue of Our Lady and Child once stood in the Church of St. John of Jerusalem at Lake Malta. Today’s name of the body of water and the modern district (Malta, Commandery) remind us that the area was once managed by the Knights of St. John. In 1187, Prince Mieszko III and Bishop Radwan granted the religious order of knights a church (then St. Michael the Archangel) and the first hospital on Polish soil for the sick and pilgrims heading to the Gniezno shrine of St. Adalbert.

The sculpture was created in a Poznań woodcarver’s workshop. Note the attribute of the Child – the bird, most probably a goldfinch, symbolically foreshadows the Passion of Christ on the Cross.