Lichen Stary is a village located 15 km to the north-east from Konin (Greater Poland - see map). In the times of the Roman Empire a trading route led through here called the "Amber Trail", which stretched from the Baltic Sea to the Mediterranean Sea. The first historical mention of Lichen dates back to the year 1151, when Piotr Dunin set a granite cross to mark the middle of the road between Grablin and Lichen, at the same time marking the trail from Kalisz to Kruszwica.

Lichen was granted city rights before 1458. It was owned by the Lichenscy family. It is here that Andrzej Lichenski was born, who later became a bishop in Poznan and one of the creators of the Polish-Lithuanian Union. In 1416 he consecrates the new St. Dorothy's Church and establishes the parish. During the war with Sweden (the so-called "Swedish Deluge") Lichen is destroyed and loses its city rights. From the year 1819 the village belongs to the counts of the Kwileccy family, who founded the brick church; in 1858 bishop Michal Marszewski from Kalisz consecrates the church and places the miraculous painting of Our Lady of Lichen inside.