What began 22 years ago with seven people walking in November cold from Chicago to Munster has grown into 6,000 people making the annual 33-mile pilgrimage to Our Lady of Czestochowa Shrine in Merrillville.

The route from St. Michael Church on Chicago's southeast side to the Salvatorian Fathers monastery is a two-day walk observing the Catholic church's Aug.15 feast day for the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Even though it is a retreat in every sense of the word, the marchers are not in seclusion. Rather, people of all ages move reverently and silently in prayer and reflection. Religious music and prayers in Polish are broadcast and confessions are heard along the way.

Other than a similar but much smaller pilgrimage in New Jersey, this is the only one in North America. It is a tradition of Chicago, the city boasting the greatest number of people of Polish descent other than Warsaw. In Poland, however, the pilgrimage may last as long as 14 days.

The icon of Our Lady of Czestochowa, also known as the Black Madonna, is shrouded in legend but is believed, according to scientific research, to have been painted as early as the 4th Century. It was brought from Jerusalem in 326 A.D. to Constantinople, where it remained venerated by the family of Constantine the Great.

The dark coloring on the face and hands is characteristic of the period's art. As part of a marriage dowry between Constantinople and the Kiev royal families, the holy picture reached Czestochowa, Poland where it has remained since 1382.

The Rev. Jozef Zuziak, along with other Salvatorian Fathers, shepherd the pilgrimage with epic-sized logistics. Seventy buses carrying participants from other parishes, including one from Detroit, arrive at St. Michael parish for the opening Mass, celebrated this year by Bishop Antoni Dziemianko of Minsk, Belarus. Others worshipers came from Wisconsin, Florida and Colorado.

Seven doctors, 30 nurses, and an ambulance accompany the pilgrimage .Some 80,000 bottles of water are ordered for the two-day event.

The first day's rest stop is in Hammond's Harrison Park, where the Andrew Sieczka family of Chicago provides an outdoor lunch of Polish sausage before the group makes its way to the Carmelite Monastery in Munster for the night.

Catered food from local restaurants provides dinner, followed by a continental breakfast the next morning. Participants sleep in either six large rented tents or in their own tents transported by two auxiliary support semitrailer trucks.

The rest stop on the second leg of the journey is the Griffith Airport. Another 4,000 people arrived in Merrillville by car to join the pilgrimage at its final stop for a Mass at the Salvatorian monastery and to provide transportation back to Chicago.

As the marchers make their way along thoroughfares and neighborhoods, observers often ask "if this is some kind of protest," explains the Rev. Zuziak, "but we just explain that we are marching for world peace, the Holy Father and the church."

The opinions are solely those of the writer. Contact her at janetcopywrite@sbcglobal.net.