Bernardines is the historical, traditional name for members of the Polish province of the Order of Friars Minor (Franciscan Observants) established in 1453. The official name is Province of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary of the Order of Friars Minor in Poland (Polish : Prowincja Niepokalanego Poczęcia Najświętszej Maryi Panny Zakonu Braci Mniejszych w Polsce). [1]
The Bernardines developed very rapidly in the territories of Poland and Lithuania; at the time of the First Partition (1772) of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, there were 129 monasteries on its territory. [2] As a result of rapid growth, the Bernardines split into four separate provinces: Lesser Poland, Greater Poland, Ruthenia, and Lithuania. Most of the monasteries were dissolved during the partitions, and only those located in the Austrian partition survived. The Polish province was rebuilt after World War I.
Currently, the Polish province of the Order of Friars Minor consists of 27 monasteries in Poland, [3] 1 monastery in Austria, 2 in Germany, 2 in Italy, 2 in Argentina, 1 in Ecuador, as well as 3 missionary posts in Congo. [4]
Traditionally, the name Bernardines is also used by members of the Province of the St. Casimir of the Order of Friars Minor in Lithuania (Lithuanian : Mažesniųjų Brolių Ordino Lietuvos Šv. Kazimiero Provincija; reestablished in 1994) [5] and the Province of St. Michael the Archangel of the Order of Friars Minor in Ukraine (Ukrainian : Провінція Св. Архангела Михаїла Ордену Братів Менших в Україні), which was established in 2004, transforming itself from a created-in 1993 custody dependent on the Polish province. [6]
The Franciscans arrived in Poland in 1236 and quickly gained extraordinary popularity. Polish friars belonged to the Bohemian-Polish province; three Polish custodies numbered 16 monasteries in 1517. [7] The Observant doctrine appeared in Poland in 1453 with the arrival of John of Capistrano, who delivered many captivating sermons in Kraków, preaching the teachings of his mentor St. Bernardino of Siena. Under his influence, many students at the University of Kraków wished to live according to the teachings of St. Francis of Assisi, and this led to the establishment of Poland's first Observant monastery in the Stradom district of Kraków, dedicated to St. Bernardino of Siena. John of Capistrano arrived in Kraków on August 28, 1453, and the monastery was founded only 10 days later. [8] The site for its construction was donated by Cardinal Zbigniew Oleśnicki; it was later enlarged by a royal donation. [8] To distinguish from the already present Franciscan Friars who represented the conventual movement, the Observants came to be called "Bernardines" after the name of the first monastery. [8]
Initially, Polish monasteries belonged to the Austro-Czech-Polish vicariate that was part of the Cismontane congregation, but this was soon divided into three vicariates in 1467. In 1517, the Polish vicariate gained the status of a separate province. From 1518 there were four custodies in Kraków, Poznań, and Vilnius. The Warsaw custody included the Ruthenian convents under its authority. [9]
In the first period, the order grew rapidly, with several convents established: [10]
Development was interrupted by the Reformation, and it was only during the Counter-Reformation period that it resumed. The period of the Khmelnytsky Uprising (1648) and subsequent wars led to the destruction of nine monasteries in Ruthenia and Ukraine. [2] This did not stop the establishment of new congregations. As a result of the rapid growth of the order, on February 20, 1628, the Polish province was divided into four separate provinces: Lesser Poland, Greater Poland, Ruthenia, and Lithuania. On July 22, 1630, however, the provinces of Ruthenia, Lesser Poland, and Lithuania were merged into one. In 1637, the Ruthenia province was again separated. And in 1731, the province of Lithuania seceded again from the province of Lesser Poland. [11]
In 1765, the province of Greater Poland had 37 monasteries, the province of Lesser Poland 18, the province of Lithuania 34, and the province of Ruthenia 30 monasteries. [12]
During the partition period, almost all monasteries in the territories occupied by Prussia and Russia were liquidated, except for Koło in Greater Poland, Kretinga in Lithuania, and Iziaslav in Ukraine. Only the Galician Province, located in Polish lands captured by Austria, survived almost intact. [13]
After Poland regained its independence, the order regained some of its monasteries, and also opened new ones in Poland and Japan. [14] Currently, the Polish province of the Order of Friars Minor consists of 27 monasteries in Poland, [3] 1 monastery in Austria, 2 in Germany, 2 in Italy, 2 in Argentina, 1 in Ecuador, as well as 3 missionary posts in Congo. [4]
Jadwiga, also known as Hedwig, was the first woman to be crowned as monarch of the Kingdom of Poland. She reigned from 16 October 1384 until her death. She was the youngest daughter of Louis the Great, King of Hungary and Poland, and his wife, Elizabeth of Bosnia. Jadwiga was a member of the Capetian House of Anjou, but she had more close forebears among the Polish Piasts than among the Angevins.
Lesser Poland, often known by its Polish name Małopolska, is a historical region situated in southern and south-eastern Poland. Its capital and largest city is Kraków. Throughout centuries, Lesser Poland developed a separate culture featuring diverse architecture, folk costumes, dances, cuisine, traditions and a rare Lesser Polish dialect. The region is rich in historical landmarks, monuments, castles, natural scenery and UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
The Order of Friars Minor Capuchin is a religious order of Franciscan friars within the Catholic Church, one of Three "First Orders" that reformed from the Franciscan Friars Minor Observant, the other being the Conventuals. Franciscans reformed as Capuchins in 1525 with the purpose of regaining the original Habit (Tunic) of St. Francis of Assisi and also for returning to a stricter observance of the rule established by Francis of Assisi in 1209.
Bernardino of Siena, OFM, also known as Bernardine, was an Italian priest and Franciscan missionary preacher in Italy. He was a systematizer of Scholastic economics. His preaching, his book burnings, and his "bonfires of the vanities" made him famous/infamous during his own lifetime because they were frequently directed against sorcery, gambling, infanticide, witchcraft, homosexuals, Jews, Romani "Gypsies", usury, etc. Bernardino was later canonised by the Catholic Church as a saint – where he is also referred to as "the Apostle of Italy" – for his efforts to revive the country's Catholicism during the 15th century.
The Deluge was a series of mid-17th-century military campaigns in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. In a wider sense, it applies to the period between the Khmelnytsky Uprising of 1648 and the Truce of Andrusovo in 1667, comprising the Polish theatres of the Russo-Polish and Second Northern Wars. In a stricter sense, the term refers to the Swedish invasion and occupation of the Commonwealth as a theatre of the Second Northern War (1655–1660) only; in Poland and Lithuania this period is called the Swedish Deluge, or less commonly the Russo–Swedish Deluge due to the simultaneous Russo-Polish War. The term "deluge" was popularized by Henryk Sienkiewicz in his novel The Deluge (1886).
Red Ruthenia, or Red Rus' (Latin: Ruthenia Rubra; Russia Rubra; Ukrainian: Червона Русь, romanized: Chervona Rus'; Polish: Ruś Czerwona, Ruś Halicka; Russian: Червонная Русь, romanized: Chervonnaya Rus'; Romanian: Rutenia Roșie), is a term used since the Middle Ages for the south-western principalities of the Kievan Rus', namely the Principality of Peremyshl and the Principality of Belz. Nowadays the region comprises parts of western Ukraine and adjoining parts of south-eastern Poland. It has also sometimes included parts of Lesser Poland, Podolia, Right-bank Ukraine and Volhynia. Centred on Przemyśl (Peremyshl) and Belz, it has included major cities such as: Chełm, Zamość, Rzeszów, Krosno and Sanok, as well as Lviv and Ternopil.
The Ruthenian Voivodeship, also called Rus’ voivodeship, was a voivodeship of the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland from 1434 until the 1772 First Partition of Poland with a center in the city of Lviv. Together with a number of other voivodeships of southern and eastern part of the Kingdom of Poland, it formed Lesser Poland Province of the Polish Crown, with its capital city in Kraków. Following the Partitions of Poland, most of Ruthenian Voivodeship, except for its northeastern corner, was annexed by the Habsburg monarchy, as part of the province of Galicia. Today, the former Ruthenian Voivodeship is divided between Poland and Ukraine.
Galicia is a historical and geographic region spanning what is now southeastern Poland and western Ukraine, long part of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. It covers much of the other historic regions of Red Ruthenia and Lesser Poland.
Sanok Land was a historical administrative division unit (ziemia) of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth from the 14th-18th centuries. It consisted of land that now belongs to the powiats (counties) of: Sanok, Brzozów, Lesko and partially Krosno and Rzeszów. Ziemia Sanocka was a part of the Ruthenian Voivodeship with the capital at Lwów.
John of Capistrano was a Franciscan friar and Catholic priest from the Italian town of Capestrano, Abruzzo. Famous as a preacher, theologian, and inquisitor, he earned himself the nickname “the Soldier Saint” when in 1456 at age 70 he led a crusade against the invading Ottoman Empire at the siege of Belgrade with the Hungarian military commander John Hunyadi.
Bełz Voivodeship was a unit of administrative division and local government in Poland from 1462 to the Partitions of Poland in 1772–1795. Together with the Ruthenian Voivodeship it was part of Red Ruthenia, Lesser Poland Province of the Polish Crown. The voivodeship was created by King Kazimierz Jagiellonczyk, and had four senators in the Senate of the Commonwealth.
Bernardines may refer to:
Subdivisions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth evolved over for centuries of its existence from the signing of the Union of Lublin to the third partition.
Jacob de Marchia, commonly known in English as Saint James of the Marches, was an Italian Friar Minor, preacher and writer. He was a Papal legate and Inquisitor.
The Austrian Partition comprise the former territories of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth acquired by the Habsburg monarchy during the Partitions of Poland in the late 18th century. The three partitions were conducted jointly by the Russian Empire, the Kingdom of Prussia and Habsburg Austria, resulting in the complete elimination of the Polish Crown. Austria acquired Polish lands during the First Partition of 1772, and Third Partition of Poland in 1795. In the end, the Austrian sector encompassed the second-largest share of the Commonwealth's population after Russia; over 2.65 million people living on 128,900 km2 of land constituting formerly south-central part of the Republic.
Polish historic regions are regions that were related to a former Polish state, or are within present-day Poland, with or without being identified in its administrative divisions.
Lesser Poland Province was an administrative division of the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland from 1569 until 1795 and the biggest province of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. The name of the province comes from historic land of Lesser Poland. The name of the province did not imply its size, but rather seniority.
Odrowąż was an important family of knights in the medieval Kingdom of Poland, strongly allied with the Catholic church in the 12th century.
The Order of Friars Minor is a mendicant Catholic religious order, founded in 1209 by Francis of Assisi. The order adheres to the teachings and spiritual disciplines of the founder and of his main associates and followers, such as Clare of Assisi, Anthony of Padua, and Elizabeth of Hungary, among many others. The Order of Friars Minor is the largest of the contemporary First Orders within the Franciscan movement.