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Philip of Fermo, the papal legate in Poland, became after studies in law in Bologna, aprovost of the Mantua Cathedral Chapter. From 1272 he was a Bishop of Fermo and co-worker of papal curia of Gregory X. He attended the Council of Lion. Pope Nicholas appointed him to his chaplain. He was a professor of law. As a papal legate he visited and reformed Italian dioceses. He was nominated by Nicholas as a legate for Poland, Dalmatia, Herzegovina, Serbia. However, the main reform activity was developed by Philip in Hungary, where he contributed to the baptism of Cumans. At the synod in Buda he issued statutes for the metropolis of Hungary and Poland, which laid down ecclesial life according to the requirements of the reformed canon law. Among other things he released the parish teaching program. At the command of the pope, he became involved of manning of vacant bishopric in Gniezno. He came to Poland and contributed to the deepening of the theological and legal knowledge of the clergy, to the improvement of ecclesiastical discipline. At the end of his stay in Poland he settled in favor of the church a dispute between Bishop Thomas and Prince Henry, but he did not resolve the conflict. He returned to the Diocese of Fermo and there he developed a pastoral work.
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Purpose of this elaboration is to show the first development phase of Lutheranism in Silesia, which lasted until the Peace of Augsburg signed in 1555, which sanctioned very intolerant rule: “Whose realm, his religion”. Martin Luther was an Augustine monk, and his agenda found its followers in Silesian cities, ducal castles and manor houses. Lutheranism changed ceremonials, introducing its own liturgy, which rejected sacraments (with the exception of baptism), Marian cult and saints, the purgatory and indulgences. After the acceptance of justification by faith alone (sola Fides), Lutheranism became easier than Catholicism. However basing theology only on the Bible (sola Scriptura), which can be freely interpreted, caused hundreds of sects to raise, and they had not much or even nothing in common with Catholicism. Not until the Council of Trent led to the true Catholic reform of the church life. It stopped the wave of Protestantism, which was still very high in the second half of the XVI century.
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Our paper is dedicated to three educative Cyrillic texts from the second half of the 18th century. These texts are located in libraries in Prague, Prešov and Užhorod. The paper describes the historical and cultural contexts of their origin as well as their content and its characteristics.
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The paper presents new information about the irmologion from 1809 written by the well-known cantor and scribe Ján Juhasevič. Until now, the manuscript formerly used in the Kamienka Parish has been considered lost. The study focuses on its basic description as well as comparison with the similar work of Jan Juhasevic dated the same year. This contributes to a better knowledge of the scribes´ practice in the Carpathian region.
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The union signed by 63 priests in 1646 at the Uzhgorod castle became the basis for later full unification of Eparchy of Mukachevo with the Catholic Church. The Charter of April 24th, 1646 says the details of this unification. This document attests the development on the issue of unification with the Catholic Church, which took place in the clergy of Eparchy of Mukachevo in the mid-17th century.
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The subject of the article are the empty frames of the image of Our Lady of Częstochowa appearing in photographs from the period of the Polish People's Republic during the pilgrimage in Poland in 1966-1972, because the icon was „arrested” by the Security Service.The author qualifies the „empty frame” for a photo-essay and explains the notions and theories drawn from the cognitive scientists involved in the creation of meanings. It raises the question whether photography in cultural space is only an image or something more – a world's vision? As a theologist, he puts forward the thesis that – a vision.
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The article introduces, on the basis of manuscript research, an unpublished treatise of Johannes Braclis from 1379, which is one of the first apologetic documents concerning the legitimacy of Pope Urban VI (1378–1389) in the Bohemian setting. In his treatise, Johannes Braclis responded to the objections raised by the Cardinals who, in September of the same year, 1378, elected Pope Clement VII. Braclis based his argumentation on the allegory of the biblical story of the election of King Saul by the Prophet Samuel while also interpreting other biblical texts, using the writings of Christian and pagan authors and quoting many provisions of contemporary canon law.
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Messalians were one of the most famous and at the same time mysterious and varied rigorous ascetic movements in the early Church. The author of the article, basing on the early Christian catalogs of heresies, written by Epiphanius of Salamina, Theodoretus of Cyrus, John Damascene and Augustine, and the contemporary literature of the subject, seeks to answer the question whether Messalians should be regarded as a kind of harmless sect or rather as a heresy proclaiming serious doctrinal errors. The conclusion is that the theological argumentation of the practice of continuous prayer in the messalian movement undermined the principal principles of orthodox pneumatology, sacramentology, ecclesiology and soteriology. It is true that in the analyzed descriptions of heresies contained in early Christian sources one must take into account the plentiful use of the invective, which often overwhelms the true image of the described movement, but in the case of the Messalians the repetition of the same allegations orders to see them not only as the ascetic movement but above all as the dangerous doctrinal heresy.
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The Sandomierz diocese was created by the Pope Pius VII 30 June 1818. Already in two years later was spent first Ordos. Other titles: Directorium, Consignatio, Cathalogus, Ordo divini officii, Kalendarz liturgiczny diecezji sandomierskiej. Attached to elenchusa lists of the parish and clergies, started resulting after the World War II in the form of separate publishing companies, being entitled: Rocznik Diecezji Sandomierskiej, Skrócony Rocznik Diecezji Sandomierskiej, Skrócony Katalog Diecezji Sandomierskiej, Spis parafii i duchowieństwa diecezji Sandomierskiej. Apart from liturgical and organizational plots, on pages of schematisms we are finding prayers for the emperor of Russia and his family. There are also subjects of competitive examinations there to benefices in knowledge of the Bible and the exegesis, dogmatic, moral, pastoral theology, homiletics, Canon Law, history of the Church.
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The Diocese of Chełm and Lublin was a complex phenomenon of the administrative and ecclesiastical nature, which appeared at the turn of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Its non-canonical but commonly used name was referred to the people and things that were linked to it. In this way, one can also speak about ordos and directories of the Diocese of Chełm and Lublin. So far the ordos and directories were known only to a limited extent. As it turns out, they were published over the whole time of the existence of the Diocese of Chełm and Lublin. The full set of their editions can be found in the library and archival institutions of Lublin.
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Pope Benedict XV (1914-1922) is often called a `missionary Pope' on the grounds of his effort to redefine and to offer a new vision of the missionary activity of the Church. The crucial principle of the renewed missionary vision was to deprive it of the political factor. Another novelty introduced by the Pontiff was to introduce the native hierarchy along with the ecclesiastical administration in the missionary countries and to foster the education and the autonomy of the local clergy. The modern, groundbreaking teaching was defined in the encyclical letter Maximum illud promulgated on 30/11/1919.
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The article focuses on the historiographic achievements of 20 priests from the Diocese of Kielce who have written their works in the last half century. The studied material covered about 800 historical works. The research areas which have been widely studied are related to the following subjects: the Polish religious culture, synods in the interwar period, the liturgy of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre and the Teutonic Order, press study. Local subjects under study refer to the history of the Diocese of Kielce: the clergy, religious life, the theological seminary, the history of parishes and monasteries, literature and pastoral work during World War II. The developing trends include research on historical book collections and archival fonds. In the diocesan historiography, a leading figure is Rev. Daniel Olszewski, the creator of the original trend of the Polish religious culture.
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In the history of Poland and the Catholic Church in the Homeland there is no lack of heroic witnesses, whose attitude, words and testimony has become a certain “sign of” a given historical period. Undoubtedly, such a character is Bl. Rev. Jerzy Popieluszko, whose teaching and famous “Mass. For the Homeland” – became a symbol of the end of the twentieth century in Poland. With these services, there was a certain custom of plastic decoration that decorated the chancel of the church of St. Stanislaw Kostka during each “Mass for Homeland”. They expressed the thematic content of the given service in a plastic form, thus constituting a patriotic-national-religious message. There were prevailing historical themes referring to the events at that time and the religious elements. The article presents chosen plastic decorations, also referring to the sermons of the “Zoliborz priest”. The analysis and presentation of works of art is possible thanks to archival collections of the Center for Documentation of the Life and Cult of Bl. Rev. Jerzy Popieluszko.
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The concept of the divine image in the patristic thought has a very rich tradition and a well-developed semantics. In an exegetic interpretation one can find both a broad treatment of this concept and a very narrow one, the objective one. In the strict sense of this word, the Divine Image, on the image of whom was created man, is Christ, the Incarnate Logos, who has fulfilled the eternal, divine intent towards man and towards the whole of creation, which was the divinisation and the state when God will be all in all (1 Corinthians 15:28). The metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh presents on this background an original thought which, however, grows from this tradition and which is concentrated around the psychological work of a Christian on his own inside with a view to extracting the lost beauty from its depth.
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The aim of the article was to present the reflection of Cardinal S. Wyszyński on the subject of the communist system in the USSR, because he effectively exposed the socialist and communist reality of this totalitarian system. In this connection, the most important publications on socialism and communism were shown. Then an assessment of this system of power was presented, which in the Primate’s opinion was a threat to the civilization built on Christian foundations. It was later shown that in difficult years of forced and widespread atheization carried out brutally in the USSR, the Polish Cardinal heroically supported the Church there, kept in touch with the laity and the clergy and even he was ordained the priests and bishop. Among the clerics working in the USSR, mostly in secrecy, he was considered and respected as their Head of the Church.
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The Missionary Society (MS) was the first national society in Poland designed for the clergy and the lay advocates of mission. It was modelled on the missionary organisations in Moravia and in West Europe. The MS was inaugurated on 14th December 1921 and then confirmed by the State on 8th February 1922. In November 1922 the organisation was renamed to the Polish Missionary Society, and in April 1926 the word „Polish” was changed into „Catholic.” The main originators and organisers of the Society grouped, above all, the Mohylew archbishop Edward Ropp, who stayed abroad in Poland at the time, his close collaborator Rev. Antoni Około-Kułak, and the editor-in-chief of the „Przegląd Powszechny” Fr. Jan Urban TJ. The MS board of directors was the Main Council whose chairperson was Primate E. Dalbor, the Executive Board, with Abp E. Ropp at the lead, and an Audit Committee. The territorial organisation of the MS made a network of parochial circles and diocesan councils which were soon established in many dioceses of Poland. The main purpose of the MS was to support actions on behalf of propagating and strengthening the Catholic faith in the Eastern borderlands and in the Slavic countries. The project-makers of the missions in Russia treated Poland as their priority because of its geographic proximity and historical ties. Moreover, the majority of Catholics in the east was made up of Poles. The MS carried out its goal through prayer and collection of means for the constructions, repairs, and provision of temples and missionary posts; the propagation of the missionary idea in the East; publication of literature and papers. The MS subsidised the Jesuit mission in Albertine, the Missionary Institute in Lublin (1924-1934), which prepared missionaries for the East; supported the theological seminary in Buczacz and Vladyvostok. After Pope Pius XI published his missionary encyclical Rerum Ecclesiae Gestarum on 28th February 1926, the missionary idea of the Catholic Church could be carried out only by three global papal organisations: The Work of Propagation of Sacred Faith, the Work of Jesus' Childhood, and the St. Peter Klawer Society. The Society embraced all missionary territories. The MS retained its specific character, that is it was directed at the Slavic East, which was one of the reasons why it was excluded from the main line of the missionary apostolate in Poland. It was followed by disappearance or, more often, reorganisation of the MS circles into the circles of papal missionary works. Thus the MS was deprived of necessary means to fulfil its tasks and, after a few years of vegetation, was liquidated in December 1931. Despite a short period of existence, it did play a role in making Polish society aware of the missions' needs by informing people about the situation of the Church and Poles behind the eastern border.
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The Cherson diocese was established on 8th November 1850 by virtue of a concordat signed between the Russian authorities and the Apostolic See in 1847 and the circumscriptive bull Universalis Ecclesiae cura of 1848 embraced Besarabia (contemporary Moldavia), south Ukraine, Russia, and the Transcaucasia. In 1852, following the order from the Orthodox Church and the Russian government, the capital of the diocese was moved to Tyraspol on the Dniestr, and the diocese itself was renamed to Tyraspol. In 1856 tsarism again moved the seat of the diocese. This time to Saratov on the Volga, which fact was confirmed by the Apostolic See in 1860. Thus the name „Saratov diocese” appeared. The paper presents a „Report on the state of the Tyraspol diocese” made in 1982 by an unknown author. In the introduction of the Report we read that the area of the diocese was 1.227.000 square km, its population numbered 19.320.000, a mosaic of nationalities and religions, a number of Catholics, among others, Germans and Poles. Among the Catholics, the decisive majority was made up by Germans, ca. 200.000, living mainly on the lower Volga and in the province of Cherson; a second place was occupied by Poles, ca. 60.000, and further Armenians (30.000), Georgians, and Russians (Ukrainians). The national mosaic, together with religious mosaic, constituted by Othodox Christians, Protestants, Catholics, and Muslims, was a source of mutual pretensions, or even fights. The bishops of the new diocese were always Germans, for it was mainly for them that the diocese had been established. The „Report” is very critical of the first bishops: Ferdynand Kahn (1788-1864) and Zottmann (1826-1901), and very critical of Bishop Zerr (1849-1934), who in 1902 gave up the bishopric of Tyraspol. The author of the „Report” was also critical of all the members of the consistory and chapter, educators and professors of the theological seminary and the whole of the clergy working in the diocese, including the faithful. Those who earned a positive evaluation were brothers Antonow, Jan and Michał, both Georgians, and Rev. Alexander Boos, a German who had long been the theological seminary's rector.The religious revival in the diocese was owed to Bishops Edward Ropp (1851-1939), and especially Józef Kessler (1862-1933). The latter was the last bishop of the Tyraspol diocese. From 1904 on he worked on a versatile revival of the diocese, where he invited Polish and Austrian Redemptorists, and Bernardines who in the years 1907-1909 conducted almost 38 parochial recollections, 22 for Poles, and 16 for Germans.
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After the Second World War several Polish Discalced Carmelites and chaplains of the Polish Army came to the United States. They put into practice, so to say, St. Rafał Kalinowski's dream when they established a monastery in 1950 in Hammond, from where they moved after two years to Munster in the diocese of Gary. Here they immediately began their pastoral ministry among the Polish community in Chicago. They built the well-known Sanctuary of the Mother of God of the Scapular. In the sanctuary park they erected a grotto to the Mother of God from Lourdes. Around the altar they placed urns with the ashes of the captives and prisoners murdered in the concentration camps in Poland and Soviet forced-labour camps. Moreover, in later years a monument of Christ the King was erected, a mountain chapel of Christ as the Man of Sorrows and the Our Lady of Ludźmierz, a monument of St. Teresa of the Baby Jesus, a monument of St. Maximilian Kolbe, and Our Lady of Ostra Brama chapel. After Kardinal Karol Wojtyła was elected to Peter's See they decorated the Papal Room with a monument of the Holy Father, organised a photo exhibition with all his apostolic trips abroad, and built St. Rafał Kalinowski Home of Encounters.John Paul II especially distinguished the Carmelite Sanctuary in Munster. In 2004 he gave it a rosary made of pure gold with a respective document in which we read: „To Our Lady of Ludźmierz, the Gaździna of Podhale worshipped in the Carmelite sanctuary in Munster, the patroness of the Society of Podhalanie in North America I offer this gold rosary as a votive – the filial chain with which Mary binds us with Jesus. (...) All worshippers of the Mother of Christ, pilgrims arriving at the Carmelite Sanctuary in Munster – the American Ludźmierz I give my apostolic blessing from the bottom of my heart”.There were numerous pastoral and patriotic initiatives offered to Chicago Polonia by the Carmelite Sanctuary in Munster. The list includes care for pilgrims, pastoral care in neighbouring parishes, Polish weekend pastoral care, St. Rafał Kalinowski Polish School was run, Polish Millennium Choir, establishment of the John Paul II Society, and a Polish-speaking group of the Lay Discalced Carmelites.What is more, in autumn 2003 the Discalced Carmelites from Munster, in order to meet the needs of our fellow Poles living in the suburbs of Chicago in Des Plaines and the vicinity, conducted regular pastoral care in St. Zechariahs' church. In August of the following year they took parochial pastoral care at St. Kamil's church in Chicago. For many years, the monks from Munster conducted regular pastoral care in St. Bronon's parish in Chicago, and later in St. Priscilla's church.The most important initiative of the Polish Carmelites in Munster, however, was their settlement in the end of the 1980s in Korona in Florida and the establishment of a Polish sanctuary in St. Joseph's church.The Polish Discalced Carmelites, the spiritual sons of the great Spanish mystics, Teresa of Jesus and John of the Cross, and fellow brothers of St. Rafał Kalinowski carried out the charisma of their order. Being aware of the signs of time and place, they do not spare hard work to minister to their fellow Poles spread all over the world, of which the United States of North America is the best example. Thereby the Polish monks fulfil the instructions of the Venerable John Paul II and the Papal Council for the Pastoral Care for Migrants and Travellers.
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