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Nasza Przeszłość

Vol. 88 (1997): Our Past

Articles

The figure of Blessed Kinga in the verbal folklore of southern Poland

  • Urszula Janicka-Krzywda
DOI: https://doi.org/10.52204/np.1997.88.33-57  [Google Scholar]
Published: 1997-12-30

Abstract

Kunegunda, known in Poland and Hungary as Kinga, daughter of King John of Hungary and Mary, daughter of Theodore Lascar and titular Empress of Greece, was born in 1234. In 1239 she was engaged, and at the age of 12 she married Bolesław the Chaste, Duke of Krakow. Bolesław was the son of Leszek the White from Kraków and the Russian princess Grzymisława, daughter of Inevar from Lviv. After her husband's death in 1292, Dowager Duchess Kinga moved to the Poor Clares monastery, which she founded in Stary Sącz. She died there in 1292. Pope Alexander II announced her beatification on June 10, 1690. In the oral folklore of southern Poland, legends about Blessed Kinga constitute the second largest group, second only to materials relating to the Blessed Virgin Mary. The figure of Blessed Kinga seems to absorb an extraordinary number of motifs from the journeys of the saints' lives. They contributed to the development of a full hagiographic legend, which in numerous versions presents an extraordinary wealth of topics. Princess Kinga's entire life was associated with three geographical regions that in her times were part of the Duchies of Krakow and Sandomierz, and in the folklore of these regions we find practically all the motifs and legends related to Kinga. Moreover, we can observe a characteristic division of dominant motifs, undoubtedly determined by their historical importance for particular regions. Thus, the Krakow region emphasized the discovery of salt in Wieliczka, the Nowy Sącz region celebrated Kinga as the benefactress of the monastery, and the Pieniny-Spis region prefers stories about Tartar invasions. Motifs and topics related to the legend of the blessed Kinga belong to the treasury of European culture, their origin undoubtedly goes back to the archetypes of primitive thought. Most of them qualify as legends or myths from numerous analogies in European and Indo-European oral folklore.

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