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Vol. 104 (2005): Our Past

Articles

The history of the cult of Mother Teresa Marchocka, a Discalced Carmelite nun (1603-1652)

  • Czesław Gil
DOI: https://doi.org/10.52204/np.2005.104.5-35  [Google Scholar]
Published: 2005-12-30

Abstract

Marianna Marchocka (1603-1652), or Teresa of Jesus in the Discalced Carmelitan Order, is the only woman in the Dictionary of Polish Catholic Theologians from [Poland's] Baptism until the 19th Century (Vol. 3, 1982). She wrote the first mystical autobiography in Polish, which happens to be also the first woman's autobiography in our literature. Her work was for a long time read in handwritten copies by Carmelitan nuns; in the 20th century it was discovered by historians of spirituality and published (in 1939) by Karol Górski. Lately, it attracted the attention of women's literature in the Baroque Age and students of literature interested in the exploring the ways in which she sought to describe her mystical experiences. Teresa Marchocka founded two houses of her order (one in Lwów and the other in Warsaw). She was well known in all spheres of society. She acted as spiritual advisor to King Jan Kazimierz and Queen Ludwika Maria; many other people asked her for intercessory prayers. She died in 1652, and her cult flourished first round the convent of the Discalced Carmelitan Nuns in Warsaw. In 1818, when the Warsaw convent was cashiered, the nuns took the coffin with her remains and moved to Cracow. The process of her beatification started soon after her death but failed to get beyond the preparatory stage; the initiative was resumed at the end of the 19th century by Rafał Kalinowski and again more recently, after his beatification in 1987.

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