Lietuvos Jėzuitų provincijos mūrininkai: Stanisławo Bohdziewicziaus karta
Bricklayers of the Lithuanian Jesuit province: the generation of Stanisław Bohdziewicz

Summary/Abstract: The aim of the study was to highlight the generation of bricklayers of the province of Lithuanian Jesuits and the Jesuit bricklayer Stanisław Bohdziewicz (1608–1678). The author analyzes Jesuit catalogues and the obituary of Bohdziewicz as well as other historical sources. The objective was to find out what construction works were carried out by brothers bricklayers-practitioners of a lower rank (according to the stages of Jesuit formation) without higher education. So far, these questions have not been raised by scientists, therefore, this work serves as a kind of introduction into the further and wider research of bricklayers who worked at construction sites of Lithuanian Jesuits. The obituary of the bricklayer Bohdziewicz kept at the Roman Jesuit Archive (Archivum Romanum Societatis Iesu) is published. The document shows the everyday life of a monkcraftsman, his character features and piety.At the construction sites of the province of Lithuanian Jesuits (1608) while building Vilnius Professed House and St. Casimir Church, local Jesuit bricklayers (Stanisław Bohdziewicz among them) were also educated. In Jesuit catalogues, among other various duties, the profession of Bohdziewicz who worked at construction sites was listed as “bricklayer” (murarius). However, these documents do not contain descriptions of construction works, therefore it is unknown what construction works were performed by Bohdziewicz. At Vilnius Jesuit noviciate (1625–1633), he might have been a supervisor of bricklayers and taught younger Jesuits, such as Krzysztof Stefanowicz, Maciej Bitanowicz, Maciej Piotrowicz. There were also suppositions that this bricklayer participated in the construction of Kražiai Jesuit College (1641 – 1678).When Bohdziewicz grew older and could no longer perform any physical work, he might have taken the position of a construction manager, but we have no historical evidence to prove that. Such bricklaying practice was known in the 17th century; for instance, a contemporary of Bohdziewicz, Martynus Wyborski, supervised the construction of Lomza College.The obituary of Bohdziewicz states: “During the construction of three churches, he built two – Saint Ignatius and Saint Casimir Churches – to the very top and the third one till it was of suitable size…” It is unlikely that the author of the obituary would have described in such a way a brother who had poor experience in the field or worked irregularly. Moreover, this description clearly reflects that the works by the Jesuit bricklayer were not kept anonymous. The research of the activities of Bohdziewich has revealed that in the 17th century, when the number of construction in the province of Lithuanian Jesuits increased, the highly requested profession of a bricklayer was understood in a much broader sense than usual bricklaying works.

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