Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 15.djvu/618

 WARSAW

556

WARSAW

1831 and 1837, the archdiocese was administered by two prelates, Edward Czarnecki and Adam Pasz- kowicz. On the death of Choroniafiski it had two other administrators, Thomas Chielewski, suffragan Bishop of Warsaw until 1844, and Anthony Melchior Fijalkowski, who was appointed archbishop 11 Jan- uary, 1857, and died in exile 5 October, 1861. On 26 January he was succeeded by Sigismund Szczensny Felinski, who, in consequence of the Pohsh insurrec- tion of 14 June, 1863, was summoned to St. Peters- burg and exiled to Yaroslaw. There he remained for twenty years, exercising a fruitful apostolate arid writing his memoirs which are of great interest for the religious history of Poland. He resigned on 13 March, 1883, and died on 17 September, 1895. On 15 March of the same year Vincent Theophilus Cho- sciak Popiel was appointed his successor.

The Archdiocese of Warsaw should have two suf- fragan bishops, one for Lowicz, the other for Warsaw; but these two suffragans are rarely elected. The Diocese of Warsaw at present comprises the metro- politan chapter of Warsaw, with eleven canons, and the collegiate chapter of Lowicz, with seven canons. The diocese is divided into fourteen deaneries: War- saw, with 12 pai'ishes and 25 churches or suburban parochial succursals; Brzeziny, 64,736 souls and 19 churches; Gostynin, 59,212 souls and 16 churches; Grodzisk, 91,958 souls and 18 churches; Grojec, 95,742 souls and 30 churches; Kutno, 74,281 souls and 22 churches ;tLeczyca, 111,438 souls and 32 churches; Lodz, 308,930 souls and 10 churches; Lowicz, 81,354 souls and 19 churches; Minsk, 88,472 souls and 20 churches; Radzymin, 69,279 souls and 13 churches; Rawa, 65,484 souls and 20 churches; Skierniewice, 43,687 souls and 13 churches; Sochaczew, 54,968 souls and 18 churches. There are 51 non-parochial churches. The secular clergy numbers 529 priests; the regu- lar clergy is reduced to practically nothing, consisting only of a few religious who have survived since the closing of the convents in 1863, and some Capuchins of the convent of Nowe Miasto, thirteen in number, altogether 22 priests and 2 lay brothers. In 1906 five Redemptorists took up their residence at Warsaw, but were expelled in 1909. Two convents of religious women exist at Warsaw; that of the Visitation, with 14 Sisters; that of the Perpetual Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, with 13 Sisters. At Szymanow there is a convent of Sisters of the Immaculate Con- ception, numbering 36 religious. On the other hand the Sisters of Charity, at Warsaw, Kutno, Lowicz, Leczyc, Rawa, Skierniewice, Grojec, etc., number 382; they have charge of the hospitals, orphanages, alms- houses, lunatic asylums, and sanatoria. The metro- pohtan seminary has 10 professors and 122 students. In 1816 the University of Warsaw had a faculty of Catholic theology; in 1825 it was transformed into a seminary of higher studies; in 1835 the Tsar Nicholas I made it a Catholic ecclesiastical academy; but it was suppressed in 1867. The Diocese of Warsaw sends six or seven of its best students to the Catholic ecclesiastical seminary of St. Petersburg.

In tlie city of Warsaw the faithful number 414,620 souls; in the diocese, 1,412,052, making 1,827,272 souls for the whole archdiocese. The city contains more than forty churches and chapels, most of which for- merly belonged to the religious orders. The cathedral, dedicated to St. John the Baptist, dates from the thirteenth century; it contains many chapels, works of art, and tombs of illustrious Polish magnates; the famous .Jesuit, Father Peter Skarga, preached there. It is a church of much historical importance for the events which have taken place in it, and is a parish church, served by a college of vicars, with a parish of 20,000 souls. The August inian Church of St. Martin, founded in the fourteenth century, has been since 1625 the seat of a very flourishing Confraternity of the Girdle; the religious were expelled from it in

1864. Next in order of importance are, among others: the Church of the Visitation of the Most Holy Mary, founded early in the fifteenth centurv, restored in 1829-41, with a parish of 19,000 souls; the Church of S. Ann of the Bernardines, foimded in the same century, where the mortal remains of Bles.sed Ladis- laus of Gelniow are venerated; Holy Cross, built in the first half of the sixteenth centiuy, and given in 1603 to the Missionaries of St. Vincent de Paul. The religious were expelled from it in 1864. It stands in the aristocratic quarter of the city, and has a parish of 17,000 souls. The Dominican Church of St. James was built in the seventeenth century by the famous church historian Abram Bzowski (Bzovius). The Church of the Holy Spirit, t he origin of which is said todate from the fourteenth century', was given to the Pauhnes in 1661, and in 1819 to the German Catholic Confraternity. St. Anthony, founded in the earher half of the seventeenth centurj-, was entrusted to the Reformed Franciscans; it has been the parish church of 18,000 souls since 1864. The Assumption, built in the first half of the seventeenth centurj' by the Carmehtes, together with their convent, became in 1865-67 the seat of the CathoUc academy, and is now occupied by the archdiocesan seminary. St. Francis, consecrated in 1646, is now the church of the military chaplains. St. Mary, founded by the Jesuits and completed in 1626, was afterwards given to the Paulines and Piarists. The Transfiguration, formerly a Capuchin chiuch, founded by John Sobieski to ■ commemorate the deliverance of Vienna from the Turks, became in 1866 a parish church of 6000 souls. The Carmehte Church of the Nativity, built in the sixteenth centurv, is now the church of a parish with 42,000 souls. The Most Holy Trinity, Trinitarian, was begun in 1699; it now serves a parish of 38,000 souls. The church of St. Alexander, built by Tsar Alexander I in 1836, is magnificently adorned with sculpture and paintings, but is not in favour with patriotic Poles. All Saints, a modern church, con- secrated in 1883, has a parish of 60,000 souls. Our Lady of Loreto, in the popular suburb of Praga, has 82,000 souls in its parish.

After Warsaw, the chief centre of population in the diocese is Lodz, which has two parish churches, the Assumption (92,000 souls) and the Exaltation of the Holy Cross (142,734 souls). Notwithstanding the unfavourable circumstances under which the Diocese of Warsaw exists, Cathohcism there is in a flourishing condition, and piety is vigorous among its inhabitants. The secular clergj- is insufficient in number to supply the spiritual needs of the flock, and unfortunately the assistance of regular clergj' is wanting. Catholicism has to combat the corruption of morals fomented in a thousand ways by anti- Christian agencies; the anti-clerical propaganda of the Sociahsts and the Freethinkers, who liave founded a periodical, the "Mysl Niepodlegla" (Independent Thought), to defame religion and its ministers; the legal persecution of the Russian Government; lastly, the Mariavites, who are scattered throughout the Diocese of Warsaw. Lodz has now become the centre of Mariavitism; there, according to Mariavitist statis- tics, the adherents of the sect numbered 40,000. Charitable works are highly developed at Warsaw, but it is regretted that the Cathohc press is not as flourishing as it ought to be.

MoRAWSKl, Lucerna Per/ectionis Christiana, sive viia btaii Ladislii Gelniovii (Warsaw, 1633); Golembiowski. Opisanie historycz-statystyczne miasla Warsawy (Warsaw, 1S27); Babtos- ZEwlcz, Koscioly rzymsko-kaiolickie opisane pod wzglcdcm hi»- torycznym (Warsaw, 1855): Slownik geograficxny kroksttra pols- kieao, XIII (Warsaw. 1893). 18-96; Czajewski. Kaledra sir. lana w Warszawie, w setna rocxnice Zamicnienia jej ria hUfdre (Warsaw, 1898); Pleszczynski. Dziej'e Akademji Duchownej w Warsaiwie (War.iaw, 1907); Bncyctopedya kosnenla. XXX (Plock, 1910). 250-326; DBIE88EN, De wijding van I. Kowalski lot bisachop der Mariayiclen (Utrecht, 1911); Oajkowski, MnriavUensekte; cinigt Bldtter au9 der neue/tlcn Kirchengesehichte rtl9»isch-Polens (Cracow, 1911); Pbzyborowsei, Z przetzlosci Warsmwy; skice