Pieśni nabożne wydane przez o. Tymoteusza Szczurowskiego w kontekście repertuaru wykonywanego w środowiskach rzymskokatolickich i unickich w Rzeczypospolitej Obojga Narodów

Abstract

The article is devoted to sacred songs issued by Tymoteusz (Tomasz Jozef) Szczurowski, (1740–1812), Basilian monk, a religious writer, a doctor of theology and canonical law, protonotary of the Holy See, a missionary acting in Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The most of songs Szczurowski published in the period of being an monk in a Basilian monastery in Biala, owned by Radziwills, and while he was in charge of a missions in Brześc parish. I compared them with sacred songs from the Roman Catholic and Uniate repertoire preserved in handwritten and printed sources, among others published in printing house of The Grand Dutchy of Lithuania. In religious works Wzor doskonalości panienskiej [ The model of virgins’ perfection ], Glos wzbudzający serca chrześcijanskie [ The voice inspiring christian hearts ] and Misja Bialska [ Mission of Biala ] Szczurowski printed many sacred songs in Polish and Ukrainian (transliterated in Latin alphabet) without notation of music for the needs of Greek Catholic Church. These works mentioned in the sources of the subject, sometimes attributed to Szczurowski’s authorship, deserve deeper exploration. On the basis of preserved printed works Szczurowski might be considered the creator of Polish and Ukrainian language sacred songs – the common heritage of Poland and Ukraine. As the result of the research conducted by myself such opinion should be disclaimed at least when it refers to songs Straszliwego majestatu Panie [ The Lord of the terrifying majesty ] and Boze w dobroci nigdy nie przebrany [ Lord of never exhausted goodness ], which were in circulation among Polish speaking Roman Catholic communities of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth already in times close to Szczurowski’s birthday. Songs from the Catholic repertoire published in Misja Bialska issue of 1792 not only confirm their popularity among the followers of the Greek Roman rite, but they also bear testimony of the meaning and role of the sacred songs in Szczurowski’s mission activity.