On October 11, 2015, in Panna Maria, Texas, the first Polish settlement in the USA, during the parish’s Annual Homecoming, the parish and community were blessed when an image of Our Lady of Piekary was donated to Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary Church for the descendants of the first Polish Silesians who came to Texas in the 1850s. A letter from the Archbishop Victor Skworc of the Katowice Diocese in Poland accompanied the gift, expressing friendship between Silesia and Texas and encouraging the continued closeness to God while serving as a bridge between people of all ethnic groups and nationalities. Second from left is the Panna Maria pastor, also from Poland, Father Wieslaw Iwaniec who lead in praying a decade of the Rosary at the presentation. Bishop Emeritus John W. Yanta (not pictured), a descendant of Silesian Polish immigrants, also welcomed the priests and visitors.  Rev. Monsignor “Father Frank” Kurzaj, left, president of the Father Leopold Moczygemba Foundation and pastor at Sacred Heart Church in Floresville, provided visitors with the history of the image, which for 300 years has inspired hundreds of thousands of faithful pilgrims, especially men and boys in Poland, including St. John Paul II, who prayed and preached at the original painting, also known as the patroness of Social Justice and Love, at the Marian Shrine in Piekary, Silesia, Poland. The gift was carried to Texas by Polish priests, Fathers Adam Zgodzaj, left, and Father Adrian Lejta, both from Piekary, the second largest destination for annual pilgrimages in Poland, second only to Czestochowa’s Black Madonna.    For more photos, visit http://on.fb.me/1LqZ3cK .