The cult of the Mother of God in Tomaszow, venerated in the image of Our Lady of the Scapular, dates back to the 17th century. According to accounts, an unknown person placed the image in 1652, in the chapel of St. Adalbert, located in the Lviv Suburb. The place was called "on the Sands" after the sand hill on which the chapel stood. The chapel stood in the place where the townspeople of Tomaszów put up a statue in 1636, as an expression of God's extraordinary presence, where "pious people... saw an extraordinary light, processions held by angels, candles and torches burning in the air, as signs that the Blessed Virgin Mary had chosen this place for her dwelling." The image of the Mother of God soon found fame as being famous for its graces.
The Swedes retreating from under Zamosc in 1656 destroyed the chapel, and took the image of the Mother of God to a military camp. A Swedish soldier carried the image under his saddle, but when his horse fell, he tore it up out of anger and abandoned it. The desecrated painting was found and taken home by two noblewomen from Tomaszow. In time, they moved to Lviv, and placed the image of Tomaszowska Pani in the furrier's chapel of the Lviv Latin Cathedral. Soon there were votive offerings next to it. After a few years, when the chapel in Tomaszow, destroyed by the Swedes (1662), was rebuilt, the townspeople asked for the miraculous image to be returned. This eventually happened thanks to the support of Archbishop Wojciech Korycinski. The image of Our Lady returned to its former place, and silver votive offerings remained in the furrier's chapel as proof of its presence there. Once again, the image of Our Lady of Tomaszów left the chapel in 1672.Faced with the threat of Turkish troops, the townspeople transported the image to the Zamość fortress, from where it returned after the war to the parish church and then the chapel in Piaski. The chapel - after the revelations of St. Adalbert, which took place in front of the image of Our Lady in Tomaszow in 1677. - was turned into a church dedicated to him.
In view of the growing cult of the image, in order to better serve the pilgrims coming to it, a brick church was built in the years 1721-25 in Tomaszowskie Piaski. Its founder was Kiev castellan Jozef Potocki, whose salvation of his life during the war riots was pleaded for in front of Tomaszow's image of the Mother of God. In 1727 the Trinitarians were brought to Tomaszow and settled at the church in Piaski. The monks took care of the place of worship of the Mother of God of Tomaszów and St. Adalbert until the dissolution of the redoubt in 1783. After the dissolution of the order, the equipment of the church along with the miraculous image of the Mother of God of Tomaszów was transferred to the parish church of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, where they remain to this day.
The year 1994, which was proclaimed the Year of the Mother of God of Tomaszów in the Diocese of Zamojsko-Lubaczów, was extremely important in the history of the Tomaszów Sanctuary. At the request of, coming from the parish of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Bishop Ordinary of Zamojsko-Lubaczów, Rev. Fr. Prof. Jan Śrutwa, the centuries-old cult of Our Lady of the Scapular in Tomaszów Lubelski was confirmed by the "papal breve" of John Paul II of February 2, 1994, authorizing the ceremonial coronation of the image. The miraculous image of the Mother of God was crowned on July 17, 1994. The coronation act was performed by Apostolic Nuncio Archbishop Jozef Kowalczyk. The coronation ceremony was attended by 23 bishops and more than 60,000 faithful (including those from Ukraine).
The coronation ceremony was preceded by several years of material and spiritual preparations by the parish, led by the then parish priest and custodian of the sanctuary, Rev. Canon Hermenegild Frąkała. At that time, repairs were made to the church, conservation of the altar and miraculous image, construction of the Tomaszow Calvary with the Stations of the Cross, St. Adalbert's Chapel (on the site of the one that had housed the miraculous image of the Mother of God since the 17th century) and the rectory building. Occasional publications were published in print, including "The Marian Shrine in Tomaszow Lubelski. Commemorative publication dedicated to the coronation of the image of Our Lady of Tomaszów Lubelski" (Tomaszów Lubelski 1994).
