Losy zakonników i zakonnic z klasztorów skasowanych w Wielkim Księstwie Poznańskim (do 1841 r.)
The history of monks and nuns from dissolved monasteries and convents in the Grand Duchy of Posen (until 1841)

Summary/Abstract: Pursuant to the decisions of the Congress of Vienna, western parts of the Duchy of Warsaw (with Poznań and Bydgoszcz) were incorporated into the Kingdom of Prussia as the Grand Duchy of Posen/the Province of Posen. Although the new ruler, Frederick William III , guaranteed tolerance for the Catholic religion practiced by most of the region’s inhabitants, this did not extend to monasteries and convents (a total of 57 sites with 454 monks and 119 nuns). These were to be gradually reduced in number, and ultimately — dissolved altogether. At the same time, circumstances did not allow for radical solutions of the kind adopted in Silesia in 1810. The plan of Prussian authorities involved a “natural” dissolution of monasteries and convents through a gradual reduction in the numbers of monks and nuns (for example by eliminating novitiate) and secularization. The implementation of these solutions accelerated after the outbreak of the November Uprising, and the subsequent designation of Eduard Flottwell as the governor. Under an administrative decision of March 31, 1833, the remaining congregations in the Grand Duchy were to be completely dissolved within 3 years. The process ultimately ended in 1841 with the death of the last reformation commissioner, and the dissolution of the Bernardine monastery in Górka (near Łobżenica) soon after. The only congregations left in the territory of the Duchy were the Daughters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul in Poznań and the Congregation of the Oratory of Saint Philip Neri in Gostyń, as the Prussian authorities considered them useful.

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