Tradycje chrystianizacji okolic Pełczyc
Christianisation traditions of vicinities of Pełczyce

Summary/Abstract: The aim of the paper is to collect sources which could shed some light on bishop Otto’s Christianization mission carried out in the vicinities of Pełczyce in 1124. We know from the bishop’s of Bamberg biographies that upon crossing the border river (rightly assumed to be Warta) the retinue went through the Pomeranian town of Stary Gród (Zitari-groda) and headed northwards in the direction of Pyrzyce. Historians have pointed to the vicinities of today’s villages of Brzesko and Kosino as places of the retinue’s rest. This fact is supposed to be immortalized by the name of a stream – Jordan and the Polish Road (Polska Droga). Recently, a hypothesis has been put forward according to which the bishop got there from the vicinities of Pełczyce. It was there that already around the middle of the 13th century names of two villages were used simultaneously and bore witness to their connections with places of worship. Furthermore, later ecclesial foundations for Victorines and Cisterian nuns in Pełczyce in the 13th century probably resulted from the willingness to immortalize the stay of missionary retinue in this place. These efforts might have been bound up with the flourishing of saint Otto’s cult in the Duchy of Pomerania at the turn of the 13th and 14th centuries. The author of this material probably found further onomastic evidence and showed archeological as well as cartographic sources which could buttress this hypothesis. Moreover, the bestowment for the Victorines was found in a specific place, which had proved impossible for older historiography. At the same time, an attempt has been made to study the founders’ history – the Behrs family from Pełczyce – in order to establish the time of the foundation. Documents which are available show that it might have taken place around 1275.

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