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

Vol. 92 (1999): Our Past

Articles

Educational work of the Congregation of the Serving Maids of the Blessed Virgin Mary from Stara Wieś in the Archdiocese of Cracow in the years 1869-1992

  • Małgorzata Syska
DOI: https://doi.org/10.52204/np.1999.92.311-400  [Google Scholar]
Published: 1999-12-30

Abstract

In their efforts to establish nurseries in the countryside, the Congregatio Sororum Servularum BMV from Stara Wieś in the Archdiocese of Krakow received help from local landowners, but the rapid development of their ambitious project would not have been possible without the support of the Krakow bishops and clergy. The sisters decided to take care of small children and work to improve the moral, religious and cultural life of peasants. They organized home science courses and less formal meetings ("evening meetings") for women and older girls, during which popular lectures on educational and religious topics were intertwined with singing and other common games. In several villages, the Sisters established primary schools and worked there as teachers. As the processes of industrialization and migration from the countryside intensified, the Sisters decided to expand their activities to developing urban centers in the first years of this century. The new initiative was positively received by company management boards, state agencies and public organizations. They hoped that the presence of the Sisters would facilitate the integration of the migrating masses in the new urban environment and prevent the spread of communist influence. In the years 1918-1939, the Congregation of the Servants of the Blessed Virgin Mary continued to work in nurseries, primary schools, and orphanages. The sisters also took care of older children at summer camps, students of the home economics school in Staniątki, students of a number of school boarding schools and young people of numerous church organizations. The outbreak of World War II interrupted a significant part of official school activities, but did not put an end to their work. Despite constant persecution, the deportation of two sisters from Krzeczów to the concentration camp in Auschwitz (Oświęcim) and the order to close two houses, the Sisters were busy running a secret network of schools. After the war ended, they resumed work in the public school system. However, after 1949, the communist authorities began to remove them from state schools and kindergartens. Because the prospect of the Servants of Mary resigning for good from the position in which they had worked with great sacrifice was difficult to accept, priests and parishioners invited them to continue their activities in parish halls. There, the sisters were able to teach religion after it was finally banned in all schools. Over the following years and decades, the Sisters gradually became an integral element of many local communities: in new housing estates, they lived like everyone else in blocks of flats. Their situation changed again in 1989. The political transformation again opened the doors to nurseries, public kindergartens and state schools, not to mention private educational and charitable institutions. Wherever they go, their contributions are greatly appreciated.

References

  1. Chałasiński J., Młode pokolenie chłopów. Procesy i zagadnienia kształtowania się chłopskiej warstwy w Polsce, Warszawa 1938. [Google Scholar]
  2. Chomko D., Katolickie Stowarzyszenie Młodzieży Żeńskiej w (Archidiecezji krakowskiej w latach 1910-1939, Kraków 1992. [Google Scholar]
  3. Chrobaczyński J., Tajne nauczanie na Podkarpaciu 1939-1945, Rzeszów 1987. [Google Scholar]
  4. Fortuna M. , Szkolnictwo podstawowe w Okręgu Szkolnym Krakowskim (1945-1961), Kraków 1987. [Google Scholar]
  5. Kornacka M., Edmund Bojanowski 1814-1871, „Nasza Przeszłość” t. 26:1967. [Google Scholar]
  6. Krasuski J. , Tajne szkolnictwo polskie w okresie okupacji hitlerowskiej 1939-1945, Kielce 1994. [Google Scholar]
  7. Morthorst B., Nędzy trzeba samemu dotknąć, Wrocław 1988. [Google Scholar]
  8. Niedźwiedzka Z., Edmund Bojanowski, Prekursor Soboru Watykańskiego //, Wrocław 1983. [Google Scholar]
  9. Piaszyk M., G. Kasperek, Materiały do Dziejów Kościoła w Polsce, t. 6, Zakony żeńskie w Polsce międzywojennej, Lublin 1978. [Google Scholar]
  10. Pietrzak M., Prawo wyznaniowe, Warszawa 1978. [Google Scholar]
  11. Semków J., Polityka szkolna władz w poglądach społeczeństwa polskiego w Galicji, Wrocław 1973. [Google Scholar]
  12. Szelęgiewicz A., Edmund Bojanowski i jego dzieło, Poznań- -Warszawa-Lublin 1966. [Google Scholar]
  13. Urban J., Statut i regulaminy Towarzystwa Szkoły Ludowej, Kraków 1894. [Google Scholar]
  14. Wroczyński R., Dzieje oświaty polskiej, t. 2, Warszawa 1996. [Google Scholar]

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.