[2] In 1953 a Polish Pauline monk, Father Michael M. Zembrzuski, purchased a tract of land near Doylestown with the intention of building a chapel dedicated to the Black Madonna of Częstochowa at Jasna Góra Monastery, Poland's most important religious icon, to reconnect Polish-Americans with their Polish Catholic roots.

Archbishop John Francis O'Hara of Philadelphia granted permission for the erection of a shrine, and a barn was converted into the first chapel; it was moved to a new site and dedicated on June 26, 1955.

It was dedicated on October 16, 1966, by Archbishop (later Cardinal) John Krol, with President Lyndon B. Johnson and members of his family as honored guests.

[4] The centerpiece of the new shrine was a church building designed by the Polish-American architect George Szeptycki housing the replica of the Black Madonna painting.

Cardinal Karol Wojtyla, the future Pope John Paul II, visited twice: first in 1969 and then in 1976, while attending the Eucharistic Congress in Philadelphia.