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 POLAND

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POLAND

undermined the existence of the Polish Benedictines.

First the possessions of the abbots were confiscated and then the convents suppressed. The Benedictine nuns had convents in Poland in the Middle Ages. Their rules were strict: they were permitted to eat only two meals a day; the entire day was spent in prayer, meditation, spiritual reading, and hearing two Masses, the Divine Office, and work. They made beautiful church vestments and also occupied them- selves with the copying of books. Strict discipline prevailed in the congregation.

The Bernardines, made famous by St. John Capi- stran (1386-1456), the pupil of St. Bernardine of Siena, were much sought everywhere. Convents were gladly built for them in Poland, where they were in- troduced by John Casimir and Sbigniew Olesnizki. This order, the largest in Poland with members of Polish descent, rendered distinguished service to the fatherland. When the Franciscans established them- selves in Poland about the year 1232, and later also, the Order of Tertiaries began to gain more and more members here. The Tertiary Sisters, members of the laity, formed them- selves into religious organizations for prayer and good works. From these societies there arose in Poland in the year 1514 an order of women, the so-called Bernardino Nuns.

The Brothers of Mercy were intro- duced into Poland in the seventeenth cen- tury. Many of them died in the odour of sanctity. Whereas in other countries the care of the sick in general was en- tnisted to the reli- gious, in Poland they devoted themselves to the care of the Church ci - \i \ 1

insane. Erected by the Tsar Alexaudt r I as a me

The Camaldolese came to Poland in the year 1605 from the congregation of Monte Corona near Perugia. They were dependent on the mother-house; not until after the partition of Poland did this dependence cease. Of the five convents established in Poland only the hermitage at Bielany, near Cracow, is still in existence.

The Canons Regular of St. John Lateran, one of the oldest congregations in Poland, were suppressed in 1782 by Joseph II; there are, however, six convents at present in Austria.

The Capuchins. — As early as 1596 King Sigismund had memorialized the Apostolic See to introduce this order into Poland, but permission to introduce it there was first granted to King John Sobieski. In 1681 some Capuchins came to Warsaw and Cracow. Gradually the number of foreigners in the convents grew smaller; the novices were mostly Poles, so that the Apostolic See, in 1738, transferred the supervision of the Polish Capuchins to the Bohemian provincials. When the order had as many as 9 convents, 129 fathers, 31 novices, and 73 brothers, Benedict XIV established a separate Polish province. The Capu- chins in Poland, as elsewhere, won for themselves high esteem and exerted a wholesome influence upon the awakening of the religious sentiment among the people. In Galicia there are at present nine Capu- chin convents. In Russian Poland all their convents but one have been suppressed.

The Carmelites (Calcedj in Poland date from the XII.— 13

latter part of the fourteenth century. Here, as else- where, some of their convents observed the milder rule of Eugene IV, while others observed the more severe rule of John Soreth. Before the partition there were 58 Carmelite convents and 9 residences in Poland. After the partition those in the Polish prov-' inces of Prussia were all suppressed ; this happened in Russia also, some being suppressed in 1832, the rest somewhat later. Under Austrian rule Joseph II re- tained only six convents, which formed the Galician province of the order. There were also in Poland Calced Carmelite Nuns.

The Carmelites (Discalced) who, at the pope's re- quest, went as missionaries to Persia, passed through Poland on their way. The Poles then for the first time saw members of this order, and it at once found general favour. In the next year it was introduced and in time became widespread. Several convents of the Discalced Carmelite nuns are still in existence.

The Carthusians. — The time of their first settle- ment in Poland is unknown. It is probable that the first superiors were foreigners, possibly also the major- ity of the monks. Natives, however, were also received into their convents, and in this way they were gradually Polo- nized. They ob- served the general rule of the order, and devoted themselves to prayer and man- ual labor, especially to the copying of manuscripts.

The Cistercians, the most important offshoot of the Bene- dictines, were intro- duced into Poland about the year 1140, when the order had been sanctioned only about twenty years. 1 1 w \ns\w-LATiN Kite From the very be-

uorial uf his first visit to Warsaw in 1835 ginning they proved

themselves a contemplative order, devoted to man- ual labor, rendering great service to agriculture by clearing forests, bringing the land under cultivation, and encouraging the various industries. For this reason the order received the hearty support of bishops and magnates. In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries it spread through Poland wilii extranrdinary rapidity, and was richly endowed with landed property. The Cistercians having come to Poland from Germany, France, and Italy, their convents as late as the six- teenth century preserved the individualities corre- sponding to the various nationality of their first inmates respectively. The Germans even introduced German colonists into their convent villages. Sigis- mund I was the first to forbid this seclusion by the decrees of 1511 and 1538. To the final Polonization of the Cistercian convents Lutheranism was a con- tributing cause; for many German monks, infected by the teachings of Luther, left the convents, while the rest cared little for the rules of the order or for propriety. The places vacated by Germans were filled by Poles. The reform of the order, accom- plished in the year 1580, purified and elevated the fraternal spirit of the Polish Cistercians. In the course of the eighteenth century they had to endure severe reverses of fortune; indeed, they lived in pov- erty and need, and at the time of the partition of Poland the Polish province of the order numbered 20 convents with more than 500 male or female inmates. At present there remain only two Cistercian convents