Cunceviana w zbiorach ossolińskich

Abstract

[St. Josaphat Kuntsevich in the collection of the Ossolinskis National Institute Library] St. Josaphat Kuntsevich, beatified in 1643 and canonized in 1867, is known and worshipped both in the Greek Catholic and the Roman Catholic Church. His person was the subject of many publications, dating back as early as the 1620’s. Among the prints published in the 17th and the 18th century there are sermons, elegies, panegyrics, and descriptions of life and martyrdom of Kuntsevich, written and published in Polish or Latin. In the old-prints collection of the Ossolinskis National Institute Library there are about thirty surviving texts devoted to the martyr, whereas Karol Estreicher’s Polish Bibliography mentions a greater number, about forty works. Undoubtedly, there must exist even more documents, since information about the life and activity of St. Josaphat was also included in the contemporary large works devoted to the history of the Eastern and Western Catholic Churches. The 17th and 18th century authors did not attempt to evaluate Josaphat Kuntsevich’s activity, but they pointed to the ways in which mutual relations between the two churches were shaping in the eastern part of Poland.