The Rainbow Madonna is an adaptation of the

icon An icon () is a religious work of art, most commonly a painting, in the cultures of the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Catholic Church, Catholic, and Lutheranism, Lutheran churches. The most common subjects include Jesus, Mary, mother of ...

Black Madonna of Częstochowa The Black Madonna of Częstochowa (; ), also known as Our Lady of Częstochowa () is a venerated icon of the Blessed Virgin Mary enshrined at the Jasna Góra Monastery in Częstochowa, Poland. Pope Clement XI issued a Pontifical decree of canon ...

, with the halos colored in

rainbow colors A rainbow is an optical phenomenon caused by refraction, internal reflection and dispersion (optics), dispersion of light in water droplets resulting in a continuous visible spectrum, spectrum of light appearing in the sky. The rainbow takes t ...

of the

LGBT LGBTQ people are individuals who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or questioning. Many variants of the initialism are used; LGBTQIA+ people incorporates intersex, asexual, aromantic, agender, and other individuals. The gro ...

movement. This modification of the painting, created by a civil rights activist

Elżbieta Podleśna Elżbieta Podleśna (; born ),
CNN, Paul P. Murphy and Antonia ...

, is controversial in predominantly

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

where the original icon is an object of veneration.LGBT Virgin Mary triggers Polish activist's detention
BBC, 14 May 2019 Following the events of 2019, the

US Episcopal Church The Episcopal Church (TEC), also known as the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America (PECUSA), is a member of the worldwide Anglican Communion, based in the United States. It is a mainline Protestant denomination and is ...

asked for permission to sell T-shirts bearing the Rainbow Madonna with proceeds allocated to the Polish

transgender A transgender (often shortened to trans) person has a gender identity different from that typically associated with the sex they were sex assignment, assigned at birth. The opposite of ''transgender'' is ''cisgender'', which describes perso ...

community. The Rainbow Madonna affair attracted significant attention in the Polish news cycle. A poll conducted by

KANTAR A kantar is the official Egyptian weight unit for measuring cotton. It corresponds to the US hundredweight, and is roughly equal to 99.05 pounds, or 45.02 kilogram The kilogram (also spelled kilogramme) is the base unit of mass in the Inte ...

concluded that the majority of Poles who identify themselves as religious are not offended by the rainbow Madonna, based on a representative sample of 1,006 Poles. Former prime minister

Donald Tusk Donald Franciszek Tusk (born 22 April 1957) is a Polish politician and historian who has served as the prime minister of Poland since 2023, previously holding the office from 2007 to 2014. Tusk served as the president of the European Council (20 ...

pointed out that Madonna's painting with a rainbow in the background by

Hans Memling Hans Memling (also spelled Memlinc; – 11 August 1494) was a German-Flemish people, Flemish painter who worked in the tradition of Early Netherlandish painting. Born in the Middle Rhine region, he probably spent his childhood in Mainz. During ...

already appears in St. Mary's Church, Gdańsk.

References

{{LGBT in Poland LGBTQ rights LGBTQ culture in Poland LGBTQ and Christianity LGBTQ art Offending religious feelings Black Madonna of Częstochowa