Skip to main navigation menu Skip to main content Skip to site footer
Nasza Przeszłość

Vol. 89 (1998): Our Past

Articles

The correspondence of the Metropolitan Archbishop of Lviv, Józef Bilczewski, with Fr. Paweł Smolikowski CR

  • Maciej Gawlik
DOI: https://doi.org/10.52204/np.1998.89.311-399  [Google Scholar]
Published: 1998-06-30

Abstract

This study presents a collection of 81 letters that Bilczewski exchanged with Paweł Smolikowski in the years 1889–1922. Archbishop Bilczewski, in the years 1891–1900 professor of the Faculty of Theology of the University of Lviv, from 1900 metropolitan archbishop of Lviv of the Latin rite, understanding shepherd of the clergy, theologian and social activist. Fr. Paweł Smolikowski, member of the Resurrectionists, Uniate missionary, active for the Greek Catholic Church (Slavic rite) in Bulgaria and the Greek Catholic Church in Lviv, author of ascetic literature, head of the Polish College in Rome, general of the Society in 1895-1905. They were good friends and shared concern for the Church and Poland's independence. It is astonishing that these two extremely busy men corresponded so regularly and with such pleasure. The sheer variety of topics covered in their letters - invariably interspersed with good wishes and prayer requests - leaves the reader with the impression of being privy to a dialogue between two brilliant minds. The letters contain many references to current political, church and even economic events. One of their main concerns was the current crisis in the Greek Catholic Church and the far-reaching consequences of the fact that many Greek Catholic Ukrainians, resentful of Poles, had converted to Orthodoxy. A separate group of letters concerns the Polish College in Rome, run by the Resurrection Fathers for clergy from all over Poland, and the Polish Hospice, an institution run by the diocesan clergy, which from 1910 provided accommodation for priests studying in the Eternal City. Both correspondents did not omit the dramatic development of World War I and its consequences, the bloody Polish-Ukrainian conflict in Lviv and Eastern Galicia in 1918-19, and the Polish-Bolshevik war of 1920. They also did not omit internal affairs. its institutions, the archdiocese of Archbishop Bilczewski and Fr. Smolikowski Society. They were both interested in Italian and Galician politics. The letters, not yet fully published, are in the Archdiocese of Lviv, moved in 1997 from Lubaczów to Krakow, and in the Archives of the Society of the Resurrectionists in Rome.

References

  1. Bilczewski J., Eucharystia w świetle najdawniejszych pomników piśmiennych, ikonograficznych,epigraficznych, Kraków 1898. [Google Scholar]
  2. Bilczewski J., Listy pasterskie, kazania i mowy okolicznościowe, t. 2, Lwów 1922. [Google Scholar]
  3. Gawlik S., Życie i działalność abpa Józefa T. Teodorowicza, Kraków-Warszawa-Struga 1988. [Google Scholar]
  4. Kieniewicz S., Historia Polski 1795-1918, Warszawa 1997. [Google Scholar]
  5. Pajewski J. , Historia Powszechna 1871-1918, Warszawa 1996. [Google Scholar]
  6. Pobóg-Malinowski W. , Najnowsza historia polityczna Polski t. 2, cz. 1, Gdańsk 1990. [Google Scholar]
  7. Stopniak F. , Bilczewski Jozef w: Słownik Biograficzny Katolicyzmu Społecznego w Polsce, t. 1, Warszawa 1991. [Google Scholar]
  8. Tarnawski M., Arcybiskup Józef Bilczewski, Lwów 1924. [Google Scholar]
  9. Wieki J. I. , Resurrectionist Charism. A History o f the Congregation o f the Resurrection (dalej cyt. Charism), t. 2, Romę 1992. [Google Scholar]
  10. Wilk S. , Episkopat Kościoła Katolickiego w Polsce w latach 1918-1939, Warszawa 1992. [Google Scholar]

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.