Polish ordination holy card Divine Mercy - ks. Cyran, Czestochowa 1990

Devotional card issued to mark the priestly ordination of ks. Włodzimierz Cyran in Częstochowa in 1990, printed by the Congregation of Marians (copyright 1982). The front shows a colour reproduction of the Divine Mercy image with the Polish caption "Jezu ufam Tobie" (Jesus, I trust in You). This version of the iconographic type is based on the painting associated with the Vilnius type, distinguished from the classic Hylas version by its more dramatic rays of light and dark architectural background. The reverse contains two biblical quotations in Polish from Jeremiah and Ephesians.

Ordination cards of this type were printed in large numbers in Poland from the 1950s onward and distributed by the newly ordained priest to family, friends and parishioners as a personal keepsake. The year 1990 falls in the period immediately following the fall of communism in Poland, when the Catholic Church held a particularly prominent role in public life. The Congregation of Marians, a Marian congregation with close ties to the Divine Mercy devotion, produced the card.