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Abstract

Although he was only recognized as the patron saint of Poland by the Vatican in 2002, St. Andrzej Bobola was accorded a cult following much earlier than this, and venerated as the saint protector of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. He was seen as a special defender against the threat from first Tsarist Russia, then Orthodox Russia, then the Soviet Union – the Blessed’s intercession was associated with the victory of the Battle of Warsaw in 1920. For this reason, his beatification and canonization were part of political discourse.
Andrzej Bobola’s relics were originally stored in the Jesuit church in Pińsk, moved to Połock after its closure, and were taken to the Hygienic Exhibition in Moscow in 1922. Recovered thanks to the Pope’s intervention in 1924, they were taken to the Il Gesù Church in Rome. By the 1920s, Polish church authorities were already making efforts to canonize Andrzej Bobola and return his relics to Poland. Several Polish cities tried to obtain the saint’s remains, including Vilnius, Warsaw, Pińsk and even Janów Poleski.
The canonization, which took place on 17 April 1938, in particular the ceremonial return of the relics of St. Andrzej Bobola to Warsaw in June 1938, took the form of a great religious and patriotic demonstration. It was accompanied by numerous ceremonies in which the highest church and state authorities participated, with extensive paratheatrical scripts, as well as specially designed decorations and music composed for the occasion. The press reported these in great detail, constituting a fascinating case of an event of both great religious significance and broad political context.
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Authors and Affiliations

Katarzyna Kolendo-Korczak
1

  1. Instytut Sztuki PAN
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Abstract

The year 1933, which marked the 15th anniversary of Polish independence, also saw the celebrations of the 400th birthday of Stefan Batory and the 250th anniversary of the Relief of Vienna led by King Jan III Sobieski. Both events allowed for a wide campaign of propaganda for the Sanation movement’s updated political programme, clad in historical analogies, especially in the context of Eastern policy. For this reason, the ceremonies organized in the Borderlands, a particular lieux de mémoire associated with great kings, who were seen in official historical politics as natural harbingers of Józef Piłsudski, took on a special character. This provided an excellent opportunity for the propaganda of the Polish civilizing mission in the East and the promotion of the idea of Poland as a superpower. The main ceremonies commemorating Stefan Batory were organized in Grodno, where the monarch died in the historic castle in 1586. These celebrations, broadcast by radio and widely reported by the press, were attended by President Ignacy Mościcki and many national and local dignitaries, ministers, senators, deputies, voivodes, bishops, generals etc. Lavish occasional decorations, saturated with specific symbolism, were set up as modernized late 16th-century architectural stylizations. The activities of the Grodno Castle reconstruction committee were officially inaugurated on the 350th anniversary of Batory’s death. Even more magnificent were the two-day festivities commemorating the Victory at Vienna organized in Olesko, which overshadowed the central celebrations in Kraków. The programme of the ceremony proclaimed that “a deed of European importance – by King Jan III and the then-superpower Poland – must be reflected by a programme of celebrations of its 250-year anniversary on a superpower scale”. An extensive open-air spectacle was organized with the participation of thousands of extras, including soldiers in historical costumes, several hundred fire brigades, scouts and aviation squadrons. Particularly spectacular was the especially arranged musical performance combined with night illuminations. These celebrations were enhanced by other accompanying events such as the Star Automobile and Motorcycle Rally and the sightseeing rally On the Trail of Sobieski. In other Borderland towns such as Tarnopol the jubilee was celebrated on a smaller scale, where a number of outdoor events were organized under the umbrella name Harvest Festival of King Jan III and the Arrival of the Austrian Emperor’s Legation with a Request for the Relief of Vienna.
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Authors and Affiliations

Marcin Zgliński
1

  1. Instytut Sztuki PAN
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Abstract

The article discusses the artistic setting of the largest religious ceremony of the beginning of the 20th century, the coronation of the icon of Our Lady of Consolation in the Church of St. Peter and Paul in Lviv. The painting itself was considered to be one of the palladiums of the city, as in 1656, during the Swedish Deluge, the papal nuncio Vidoni first uttered the call to the “Queen of the Polish Crown” in front of this Marian image, in the presence of King Jan Kazimierz and the court.
In 1904, on the occasion of the jubilee of the announcement of the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Marian Congress took place in Lviv, and in that same year the decision was made to create new crowns for the painting of the Mother of God and Baby Jesus. A committee, composed of representatives from the aristocracy and bourgeoisie of the city, was set up to raise the appropriate funds, and the then Archbishop of Lviv, Józef Bilczewski, was asked to perform the solemn coronation. An artistic and technical committee was also established, which included the architect Teodor Talowski (chairman), Antoni Popiel, Andrzej Romaszkan, Tadeusz Czapelski and Karol Richtmann, who made the decision to transform the altar where the painting was placed and to convert the area of the church bay into a distinct chapel. The works were led by Karol Richtmann, the altar was renovated by the painter Karol Domański, and the new bronze antependium was designed by Antoni Popiel. The bolt with the depiction of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception was made by the sculptor Piotr Wójtowicz. The icon of the Virgin Mary itself was restored by Henryk Kühn. The chapel vault was decorated with paintings by Tadeusz Popiel, and its space was separated from the rest of the church by a grid made according to a project by Alfred Zachariewicz. Antoni Popiel designed golden crowns and a new dress for the figures of the Mother of God and Baby Jesus, made by the goldsmith and jeweller Jan Wojtych. The Committee also commissioned new stained glass windows for the chapel from the Kraków workshop of Stanisław Ekielski and Antoni Tuch. The main work was completed in July 1905.
On 12 February 1905, a coronation decree was issued in Rome, and Archbishop Bilczewski was appointed to perform the coronation act. On 28 April 1905, another decree was issued recognizing the antiquity and miraculousness of the painting, and the ceremony was scheduled for 28th May.
The church façade, side elevation and interior were decorated extensively, while the focal point was prepared for receiving the painting – “The Gothic golden throne with motifs from the tomb of Kazimierz the Great”. The decorations were designed by Stanisław Jasieński, a renowned painter and theatre decorator of the time. The streets and squares which the coronation procession went through were also adorned. The ceremony was very carefully planned and directed; it was attended by the clergy of the three Christian rites, local authorities and representatives of all social strata. When analyzing the coronation ceremonies, it is important to underline their considerable reliance on the schemes of coronations of Marian images which took place on Polish territory in the 18th century. The tradition of the last Marian coronation, of a painting from the Dominican Church in Lviv in 1751, was strongly referred to and accentuated in occasional prints that accompanied this solemn act. The reference to old Polish coronations can be seen in numerous occasional prints, in reporting on the course of the ceremony, as well as in the extensive descriptions and texts of sermons published. This ceremony had an exceptional social and national dimension, as it was the first such coronation in the former Polish lands since the loss of independence, and the most important ceremony before the outbreak of the First World War. Not without significance in this context was the underlined similarity of forms between the coronation throne and the canopy over the tombstone of Kazimierz the Great in the Kraków Cathedral, or the calling of one crown as Kazimierzowska and the other Jagiellońska. The new artistic remodeling of the Chapel of Our Lady in the Jesuit Church was a prelude to the renovation of the remaining altars in the church. The coronation ceremony and the restoration of the chapel gathered together the most important artists of the early 19th century working for the Church patronage in the capital of Galicia. The chapel designed by Teodor Talowski successfully combines an 18th-century retabulum with paintings by Tadeusz Popiel, being probably the last example of a true Baroque bel composto.
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Authors and Affiliations

Andrzej Betlej
1

  1. Uniwersytet Jagielloński

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