Augustianie w metropolii lwowskiej od końca XIV do połowy XIX wieku

Abstract

The subject matter has been dealt with in two chapters. The first one contains a characteristics of 11 Augustinians convents in particular dioceses; the second one discusses in detail the life and role of the monastery in Lvov, the capital of the metropoly. In the Chełm diocese 4 convents were established, in the Włodzimierz-Łuck diocese three, in the Kijów diocese two, and in the Lvov archidiocese two. A couple of foundations did not stand the trial posed by difficult conditions and after several years collapsed. The founders of the first two monasteries were the reigning king Vladislav Jagiełło (in Krasnystaw) and prince Witold (Brześć). Then monasteries were founded by magnates and noblemen, but only after a 200-year break caused by the Reformation. The earliest two monasteries belonged to the religious province of Bavaria, and then to the Polish province established in 1547. The seat of Augustinians was villages of various size. There were among them four towns: Lvov, Krasnystaw, Brześć and Żydaczów; three smaller towns (oppida): Kodnia in the Kijów voivodship, Orchów and Załoźce in the Russian voivodship; Radziechów, Witków (the Bełżec voivodship), and Zaturce (the Wołyń voivodship) were villages, land estates. Four convents had their own parishes, and one managed and restored a parish destroyed by the war. Other monasteries ran pastoral care in their church, and helped local parish priests. Augustinians cultivated Marian religiousness, three churches bore the invocation NMP (Immaculate Mary the Virgin). They established Marian fraternities, especially of NMP consolation. In Krasnystaw they were cathedral preachers, professors of theology, chaplains at the manor of a voievode, in Lvov they took care about the monastery of Brygides. The religious life was regulated by: the rule, Constitutions and ordination of the chapter and visitation. Visitors handed them, among other things, councillor and synodal orders of the Church. A general moral decline of the Polish society infiltrated also monasteries; the visitors many a time condemned intemperance. The Lvov monastery was erected in 1641. According to the provincial chapter it was supposed to play the role of a novitiate monastery and conduct studies. These plans were being put into practice over a short time; reportedly, there were only a few novitiates and students. Therefore candidates were sent to the Warsaw monastery and were charged for studies. Over the period of the first 30 years the monastery was situated in the Halicz suburb, and then was given the church of the tailors’ guild in the Cracow suburb, and there was located its seat. The monastery, along with the town, lived through Cossacks (1648), Turkish invasions (1673) and was destroyed. Then it restored its walls and took up pastoral care anew. It organized many a time massive worships, propagated religiousness in the fraternity of NMP of consolation and of St Tekla. It had relations not only with the lay founders but also with church officials, and represented all convents of the eastern lands before the metropoly. After the partition first the monasteries from the Austrian sector were annulled: in Lvov, Żydaczów, Załoźce and Witków (1783-1787). In the ’30 of the 18th century the monasteries in Brześć, Zaturce, Kodnia and Radziechów were annulled. The final stage of convents annulment occurred after the Polish uprising (1864). Then the convent in Krasnystaw and Orchow- -Orchówek fell. Augustinians of the Lvov metropoly fulfilled a noble role of strengthening Polishness in the eastern territories and preserving the Latin order, despite the Orthodox and Uniate surrounding.