Creating the Portal of Miracles and Graces

More than 4,000 miracles and graces attributed to Our Lady of Svatá Hora are recorded at Svatá Hora in Příbram. The entries date roughly from 1639 to 1760; people brought them to the pilgrimage site as written testimonies of what had happened to them. One hundred of these stories were depicted on the ceilings of the Svatá Hora cloisters in the 18th century.

The Svatá Hora books of miracles are manuscript records in which, from the 17th century onwards, pilgrims’ testimonies of miracles and graces attributed to Our Lady of Svatá Hora were written down. Each entry usually contains the person’s name, the place they came from, the date and a description of the event, and often the names of witnesses as well. Today they are a valuable source not only for the history of piety, but also for regional history and genealogy.

The Baroque paintings on the ceilings of the Svatá Hora cloisters depict one hundred specific miracles recorded in the Svatá Hora books. Each painting contains a miniature of Our Lady of Svatá Hora, the year of the event and a number referring to the corresponding entry in the book. The northern side of the cloisters shows miracles connected with water, the southern side those involving animals, war and plague.

Bohuslav Balbín was a Jesuit historian and writer who in 1665 published in Prague the Latin work Diva Montis Sancti — five books on the origins and miracles of Svatá Hora near Příbram. Three of the five books are devoted directly to miracles and graces. In 1666 the work appeared in Czech as Přepodivná Matka Svatohorská, translated by Matěj Václav Štejer, and in German in 1668.

For the moment it is practically impossible — the records are in manuscript books and are not publicly searchable anywhere. That is exactly what the Portal of Miracles and Graces of Svatá Hora is meant to change: every published record will contain a name, a place and a year, and will be searchable. Publication will begin with the hundred stories depicted in the cloisters and will continue in stages.

Věra Smolová is a historian and the head of the State District Archive in Příbram, who has long researched the miracles and graces of Our Lady of Svatá Hora recorded in the Svatá Hora sources. She leads a lecture series about them at Svatá Hora, traces the places and names from individual entries in the archives, and compares the hundred paintings on the ceilings of the Svatá Hora cloisters with their historical descriptions. She is the guarantor of the content of the Portal of Miracles and Graces of Svatá Hora and the author of its main texts.

These are contemporary written records made by specific people, not legends — set down with a name, a place, a date and often with witnesses. Historians treat them as a source: what actually happened and how people explained it to themselves are two different questions. The portal will publish both a transcript of the original entry and its historical context, and leave readers room to judge for themselves.

Adopting a miracle means that for CZK 2,000 you support the processing and publication of one specific story out of the hundred depicted in the cloisters. You choose it by year, by place or by content. The sentence “This story was made accessible by…” with your name will then remain permanently with that story on the portal, and you will receive a printed commemorative certificate with a reproduction of the Baroque painting and a transcript of the original entry.

Yes, and it is one of the most common reasons people choose an adoption. In the form you give the name to which the adoption should be credited — that name, not yours, will then appear with the story. People choose a miracle from the year the recipient was born, from their family’s home village, or a story whose theme touches someone close to them. On request we will send a printed gift certificate to hand over.

Because CZK 200,000 is the first stage, not the whole work. That amount will create a working portal and publish the first hundred stories — those depicted in the cloisters, which have already been researched. The remaining thousands of records will be processed gradually in further stages, for which we will open the collection again. We do not want to promise a finished work for money that is not enough to finish it.

No. All content will be publicly accessible free of charge and permanently, without registration and without a subscription. That is the whole point of the project — these stories went unread for three hundred years precisely because there was no way to reach them. Locking them behind a paywall would contradict the very reason we are building the portal.

Yes. Both individuals and companies may deduct the value of their gifts from their tax base, up to 30% of that base; for individuals the increased limit applies to tax periods up to and including 2026. We issue the donation confirmation automatically.