Udział Bernardynów w powstaniu styczniowym i ich późniejsze losy
Bernardine’s Participation in the January Uprising and Their Subsequent History

Summary/Abstract: According to historians, the participation of the Order of Friars Minor (Bernardines) in the January Uprising was significant. In the light of historical sources Bernardine Fathers wrote a beautiful page in this national surge. As the historian of Bernardine Order Hieronim Eugeniusz Wyczawski claimed, it should be seen as a noble surge being the expression of love for the homeland and freedom. On the other hand it is impossible not to arrive at the conclusion that actions undertaken by Bernardine Fathers were frequently reckless and gullible or they lacked the ability to organize conspiratorial work. In the present elaboration I presented the activity of Bernardine Fathers in Congress Poland and on lands directly incarnated to Russian Empire which underwent big nationalistic oppression and where the bloody January Uprising broke out in 22nd January 1863 in the Kingdom of Poland and in 1st February 1863 in the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania. At the time multiple restrictions of monastic life occurred, also for Bernardine provinces. Not only did occupying authorities declare reluctance to such form of life, but they gradually limited and liquidated monastic structures, single monasteries and whole provinces. The dissolutions of the monasteries were accompanied with looting of their properties, taking away archives and libraries, exploiting of church and monastic premises for secular purposes. The dissolution broke Bernardine structures in the Kingdom of Poland. Many monks lost the sense of leading a monastic life what was manifested by frequent requests about secularization and emigration. It was the price that Bernardine Fathers paid for their patriotic engagement and binding their lives with the history of Polish society.

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