POLAND
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POLAND
in Galicia, while under Prussian and Russian rule they
have all been suppressed.
The Dominicans were introduced into Poland by the Bishop of Cracow, Iwo Odrowasch (1223). They had no great successes to record until the fourteenth century, in the reign of Casimir the Great, when they gained a firm footing in Little Russia and t o some ext ent also in Lithuania. As an order intended to combat heresy, however, they were of no great importance in Poland, for the reason that most of them were Ger- mans who did not understand the Polish character. As a result their missionary work was not very suc- cessful. The sixteenth century, the period of the Reformation, was unfavourable to the further de- velopment of the Dominican houses, and later, when the counter-Reformation began, not Dominican but Jesuit houses were founded expressly to combat the Reformation. Not until the seventeenth century were any new Dominican convents founded. The Polish prov-ince of the order, in the year 1730, had 43 con- vents for men and 10 for women; the Russian prov- ince, 69 and 3, the province of Lithuania numbered 38 convents and 4 so-called residences. But one Dominican convent now remains, at Cracow.
The Felician nuns are an offshoot of the women's Society of St. Vincent de Paul, which is so highly esteemed to-day for its charitable work. In Warsaw there was formed in IS.5.5 a purely Polish congregation, under the patronage of St. Felix and the rule of St. Francis. (See Felician Sisters, O. S. F.)
The Franciscans have left comparatively few traces of their activity in the Polish countries. The time of their introduction into Poland is uncertain; the year is probably 1231. Certain it is that the Franciscans were in Cracow in 1237. Kindly received, they soon obtained recognition from the Pohsh people, for most of them were Poles by birth. Conformably with the rule of their order, they developed great activity in the missionary field among the Lithuanians and Ruthenians. Thanks to their labours the subsequent organization of the Catholic Church in Lithuania and Little Russia was made possible. In 1832 twenty- nine Franciscan convents were suppressed in Lithu- ania; in 1864, all those in Congress Poland with the single exception of the convent at Kalisch.
The Jesuits were introduced into Poland by Car- dinal Hosius, in 1564, to combat heresy. After their arrival, Poland, where 32 Protestant sects had been committing all sorts of excesses, witnessed a return to Catholicism. To root out heresy public debates were arranged, which opened the ej'es of many of the here- tics. The Jesuits began their labours in Lithuania, at Vilna, which was most seriously threatened by the heretical teachings. In a short time Jesuit com- munities arose throughout the land. Because of their extraordinary successes in the missionary field, schools were founded for them by every zealous bishop. The example of the bishops was followed by the kings and the magnates. After the suppression of the Society, its possessions were devoted to the support of public education. Of the Jesuit priests some retained their positions at the former Jesuit schools, the rest ob- tained employment in families of the higher nobility in the capacity of chaplains, secretaries or tutors. They were also employed in cathedral churches and in the parishes. In Poland, as everywhere, the Jesuits fought heresy with its own weapons — with sermons, disputations, education of the youth. They answered the polemical pamphlet s of the dissidents with polemical pamphlets; they appeared in public with systematic courses of excellently prepared sermons of a politico-dogmatic character. They also furnished distinguished confessors. They attracted many by means of devotions conducted with great pomp and by the organization of religious brotherhoods. For the pupils in their schools they introduced the Sodality of the Blessed Virgin. They distinguished themselves
particularly as preachers in the parochial missions.
But they were also not unmindful of the sick, the
prisoners and the soldiers. The position of military
chaplain was for the most part filled by a Jesuit.
There was no field of church-activity or of science in
which the Jesuits did not labour successfully for the
benefit of mankind. At present the Jesuit Order does
not exist in any of the Polish lands except Gahcia,
where it forms a separate province of the order, at-
tached to the German Assistance. Part also of the
Jesuits, expelled from White Russia, came to Galicia
in 1820. When, as a result of the Revolution of 1848,
they were banished thence also, they went to Silesia
and the Grand duchy of Posen, whence a part of them,
in 1852, returned to their former homes, when the
order was rehabilitated throughout the Austrian do-
minions. When again, in 1862, the Jesuits were ban-
ished from Prussia, some went to Galicia, others
undertook missions to Germany, Denmark, and
America. Since 1852 there has been a continuous
development of the pro^nnce of the Society in Galicia;
at the beginning of 1906 it numbered 473 mem-
bers, among them 215 priests, 119 clerics, and 139
brothers.
The Priests of the Mission (Lazarists) were intro- duced into Poland by the wife of King John Casimir, Maria Ludwika Gonzaga, who had personally known and highly esteemed their founder, St. Vincent de Paul, in France. At her request he sent members of his congregation to Poland in 1651. Their introduc- tion was at first resented by the Jesuits, whose con- fessors at the royal court were replaced by members of the new order. Queen Maria Ludwika wished the Priests of the Mission employed not only for the instruction of the common people in the villages and parishes, but particularly for the organization and supervision of the diocesan seminaries and for the spiritual improvement of the priesthood in the coun- try. Devout Polish magnates were anxious to have them upon their estates. There is scarcely a spot anywhere in Poland where the Lazarists have not conducted a mission. For this reason their services in the care of souls are truly extraordinary. During the first twenty-seven years the Priests of the Mission came from France and native Poles entering the con- gregation had to go to France for probation and train- ing, an arrangement which continued until the found- ing of a seminary at Warsaw. After the partition the convents suffered many hardships: under Russian rule the congregation was disbanded in 1842 and 1864, the Lazarist houses in Galicia were suppressed by Joseph II, and the same fate overtook the Priests of the Mission in Prussia at the beginning of the Kultur- kampf in 1876.
The Paulites came to Poland from Hungary in 1382, sixteen in number. Undoubtedly these Hungarian monks were not unacquainted with the Polish nation- alit}', for they were chosen from the Slovaks and Poles, who were at that time well represented in the con- vents of Hungary. The first convent was that of Czentochowa on the Klarenberg (Clarus Mons, Jasna G6ra), and the picture of the Blessed Virgin there, said to be the work of the Evangelist St. Luke, at once became famous because of numerous miracles, so that Czentochowa surpassed all other places of pilgrimage in Poland. As a result, the convent became very wealthy. In 1430 it was attacked by the Hussites. In the part of Poland which fell to Austria after the first partition the Paulite convents were suppressed in 1783 by the Emperor Joseph. Only the Galician convents, "which at the last partition came under the dominion of Austria, survived. In other parts of Poland one convent after another went out of exis- tence, and since 1892 the Paulite Order has had only two convents: Czentochowa and Cracow. The Paul- ites in Poland devoted themselves for the most part to parochial work. Parishes were connected with all
