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Old Catholic Mariavite Church | |
---|---|
Classification | Independent Catholic |
Orientation | Old Catholicism |
Theology | Mariavitism |
Polity | Episcopal |
Prime bishop | Jarosław Maria Jan Opala |
Associations | World Council of Churches Conference of European Churches Polish Ecumenical Council |
Region | Poland and France |
Headquarters | Płock, Poland [1] |
Founder | Maria Franciszka Kozłowska |
Origin | 1906 Płock, Poland |
Separated from | Roman Catholic church |
Separations | Catholic Mariavite Church |
Congregations | 44 parishes (2011) [1] |
Members | 23,436 in Poland (2011), [1] |
Ministers | 4 bishops; 25 priests |
Other name(s) | Old Catholic Church of the Mariavites |
Official website | mariawita |
The Old Catholic Mariavite Church refers to one of two independent Christian churches, both of which can be dated from 1906 but which became distinct after 1935 as a result of doctrinal differences, and are collectively known as Mariavites. Mariavitism first emerged from the religious inspiration of Polish noblewoman and nun Feliksa Kozłowska (1862–1921) living in the Russian Partition of Poland in the late 19th-century. A young Catholic priest from a modest background, Jan Maria Michał Kowalski (1871–1942), became convinced by Kozłowska's revelations and adopted her vision as his own project by her side.
The movement represented an ideology whose aim was to imitate the simplicity of the life of Mary, in Latin, qui Mariae vitam imitantur , ("Let them imitate the Life of Mary"), thus vita Mariae, the Life of Mary, gave the movement its name. The movement became the subject of two Papal bulls in 1906 which resulted in the mass excommunication from the Catholic Church of both clergy and lay adherents to the movement.
The leaders of the movement sought theological sanctuary with the Old Catholic Church of the Netherlands which, after negotiations welcomed them and in 1909 granted both recognition and Apostolic succession to what by default had become a new catholic church, the "Mariavite Church", with the power to confer holy orders. It therefore became a separate and independent religious denomination in Poland. [2] It continued as a unitary church until 1935 when a faction led by bishop Filip Feldman challenged the church leader, Michał Kowalski, and successfully expelled him and his loyalists from the headquarters in the Polish city of Płock, thereby creating two Mariavite churches.
From 1795 the territory of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth had been partitioned between the three neighbouring powers, the Austrian Empire, the Kingdom of Prussia and the Russian Empire. Under the Russian Empire, where the Russian Orthodox Church was the established church, Polish Catholic religious organizations became illegal. The situation of the Catholic Church was worst in the Russian Partition.
After the 1863 January Uprising, the tsarist authorities forbade the establishment of any new Polish organisations. Religious orders were often banned or exiled. Catholic clergy in the Russian Partition could not be locally educated, in contrast to the priests in the Austrian and Prussian Partitions. The only authorized Roman Catholic theological training in the Russian Empire was at the Saint Petersburg Roman Catholic Theological Academy.
In 1893 Kozłowska had her first religious vision. In it she understood she was to found a new religious movement expressing "Mariavitism". Further visions continued until 1918. Their content was gathered in a volume entitled Dzieło Wielkiego Miłosierdzia (The Work of Great Mercy), published by the Marinate Press in 1922.
Observing the spread of "Mariavitism" across their ecclesiastical territory, Polish Catholic bishops were alarmed by the threat the movement posed to their apostolic authority and teachings and reported it to the Vatican probably in the late 1890s. After the election of a new pope, a final papal decision on the fate of the movement was made in September 1904. [3] In April 1906, Pope Pius X promulgated the encyclical Tribus circiter . [3] In December 1906, the Catholic Church excommunicated Kozłowska, Kowalski and their followers. [3]
From 1906 the newly independent denomination continued its development, in no small measure due to donations and support from the faithful. Kozlowska's own acquisition of 400 hectares of land in Płock, enabled not only the construction of a cathedral, completed "in-house" by two professionally qualified architects and engineers (Maria Mateusz Szymanowski and Maria Bartłomiej Przysiecki ) who brought into the church considerable personal 'dowries' for the construction in Płock, of the Sanctuary of Mercy and Charity(1914) with adjoining monastic buildings, [4] but the development of revenue raising enterprises, such as educational facilities, a printing press, bakery and animal breeding.
Kowalski was consecrated in St. Gertrude's Cathedral, Utrecht, on 5 October 1909, by Old Catholic Church of the Netherlands (OKKN) Archbishop Gerardus Gul of Utrecht, assisted by two OKKN bishops, J. J. van Thiel of Haarlem and N. B. P. Spit of Deventer, one Catholic Diocese of the Old Catholics in Germany bishop, J. Demmel of Bonn, and Arnold Harris Mathew of London. [5]
In turn, Kowalski went on to consecrate: Fatôme (France), Feldman, Gołębiowski, Próchniewiski, Rostoworowski, Siedlecki, and his own wife, Maria Izabela Wiłucka-Kowalska. [6]
Following the death in 1921 of the foundress of the movement, Kozlowska, there was no effective inhibition on Kowalski's reforms and innovations which included:
Kowalski's innovations disrupted and severed the connection with the Old Catholics in Europe. [8] The church struggled to maintain its reputation and standing during the Second Polish Republic in newly independent and sovereign Poland. Mariavites were actively discriminated against to the extent of "Mariavite pogroms". The leaders of the Mariavite Church were persecuted and sued in court. Kowalski himself appeared in 20 cases to answer charges. Among other allegations he was accused of blasphemies. [9]
Throughout its early tribulations with the Rome authorities, the church was led by Kozłowska's lieutenant, the catholic priest, later excommunicated, Michał Kowalski until 1935. Kowalski had become a bishop and archbishop in the meanwhile, headquartered in the city of Płock, among other Mariavite diocesan bishops. His theological, doctrinal and ecclesiastical interpretations and innovations put pressure on the Mariavite episcopate. Among these were the introduction of married clergy, the subsequent birth of 'mystical children' separated from their parents for early rearing, the ordination of women, the establishment of a "priesthood of the faithful" and not least, Kowalski's own sexually predatory and abusive behaviour towards young nuns. The sexual allegations became the subject of a court case and public scandal surrounding the church and its reputation. Kowalski's brother bishops decided to put a stop to Kowalski's term of office and a schism ensued. The church split in two, so that the "Kowalski parishes", in the minority, became the "Catholic Mariavite Church". Its headquarters was moved to the small estate of Felicjanów, named in honour of the foundress. The dissident majority became known as the "Old Catholic Church of the Mariavites", which, after 1935, was led by bishop Maria Filip Feldman and remained based in the city of Płock. To this day, by reason of the number of worshippers and parishes, they are the larger of the two churches. After 1935, the leadership of the smaller church grouping, the Catholic Mariavite Church, remained loyal to bishop Kowalski, and after his death in a Nazi concentration camp to his widow, bishop Maria Izabela Wiłucka-Kowalska. [2]
The Old Catholic Mariavite Church remains a member of the Polish Ecumenical Council, and also of the World Council of Churches. It is not currently a member of the Old Catholic Union of Utrecht. Since 2023, Maria Jan Opala is the primate bishop of the Old Catholic Mariavite Church. By contrast, the Catholic Mariavite Church currently stands away from the ecumenical movement.
The original name of the church was in English translation, the "Old Catholic Mariavite Church" (Polish : Staro-Katolicki Kościół Mariawitów) between 1910 and 1967, when it became Kościół Starokatolicki Mariawitów a grammatical change which does not affect the translation into English. [10] [11]
The Kowalski loyalists moved from Płock to Felicjanów. The village is the headquarters of the Catholic Church of the Mariavites, which has about 3,000 members. The denomination confirmed all the decisions of Kowalski and introduced a public cult of Kozłowska, the Mateczka, the Spouse of Christ and new Redemptrix of the world. The church is insular and does not participate in the ecumenical movement. Kowalski died in Dachau concentration camp during World War II. His successor was his wife, Bishop Maria Izabela Wiłucka-Kowalska. From 1946 to 2005, the head of the church was Bishop Maria Rafael Wojciechowski . He was succeeded in 2005 by Bishop Maria Beatrycze Szulgowicz .
Feldman led the opposition to Kowalski and attracted the majority of Mariavite adherents. They decided to reverse most of the innovations introduced by Kowalski. They returned to Kozłowska's ideas and rules. The Old Catholic Mariavite Church is much the larger: as of 2011 [update] it had about 23,500 members in Poland. [12]
Leaders:
Administration:
organized into three dioceses in Poland with 38 parishes and one province in France with 2 parishes:
The Order of the Mariavites in Germany (German : Orden der Mariaviten in Deutschland e.V.) is an Eingetragener Verein type association in Germany. Even in 1949, this association was not legally recognized as a sect by Germany. [14]
Apostolic succession:
Masovian Voivodeship or Mazowieckie Province or Mazowieckie Voivodeship or Mazovian Voivodeship or Mazovian Province, etc. is a voivodeship (province) in east-central Poland, containing Poland's capital Warsaw.
Płock is a city in central Poland, on the Vistula river, in the Masovian Voivodeship. According to the data provided by GUS on 31 December 2021, there were 116,962 inhabitants in the city. Its full ceremonial name, according to the preamble to the City Statute, is Stołeczne Książęce Miasto Płock. It is used in ceremonial documents as well as for preserving an old tradition.
The Temple of Mercy and Charity is a Mariavite cathedral in Płock in central Poland. It is located near the Vistula River.
The Catholic Mariavite Church is an independent Old Catholic denomination in Poland resulting from a schism in 1935 within the Old Catholic Mariavite Church.
Feliksa Magdalena Kozłowska, known by the religious name Maria Franciszka and the epithet "Mateczka", was a Polish religious sister, Christian mystic and visionary who founded a movement of renewal in the Roman Catholic church in the Russian Partition of Poland. It was to follow the simplicity of the life of Mary, mother of Jesus. Early in the 20th century, she and this movement were excommunicated and became an autonomous church in fellowship with the Old Catholic Church of the Netherlands. In 1935 it split in two and became the Old Catholic Mariavite Church and the Catholic Mariavite Church. Both denominations were part of a single schism from the Catholic Church which declared it as heretical in 1906.
Religion in Poland is rapidly declining, although historically it had been one of the most Catholic countries in the world.
The 108 Martyrs of World War II, known also as the 108 Blessed Polish Martyrs, were Catholics from Poland killed during World War II by Nazi Germany.
Jan Kowalski, later known as Maria Michał Kowalski, was a Polish Roman Catholic diocesan priest who became a schismatic religious leader and controversial innovator. Following excommunication from his church, he was consecrated as a bishop in the Old Catholic Archdiocese of Utrecht, established the Old Catholic Church of the Mariavites in Poland, rose to be its archbishop and died a martyr. He is venerated as a saint in the Catholic Mariavite Church.
The Diocese of Płock is a Latin Church diocese of the Catholic Church located in the city of Płock in the ecclesiastical province of Warszawa in Poland.
Tribus circiter is Pope Pius X's 1906 encyclical, to the archbishops of Warsaw and bishops of Płock and Lublin, about the Mariavites or Mystic Priests of Poland, an association of secular priests that the document describes as "a kind of pseudo-monastic society". The association of secular priests and the Mariavite movement was founded by Feliksa Kozłowska and later broke away from the Catholic Church to become the Mariavite Church.
Felicjanów is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Bodzanów, within Płock County, Masovian Voivodeship, in east-central Poland. Founded as a Mariavite colony, it currently serves as headquarters of Catholic Mariavite Church.
Stare Proboszczewice is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Stara Biała, within Płock County, Masovian Voivodeship, in east-central Poland. It lies approximately 12 kilometres (7 mi) north of Płock and 102 km (63 mi) north-west of Warsaw.
Gerardus Gul served as the seventeenth Archbishop of Utrecht from 1892 to 1920. He is known for his role in assisting the persons who would later found the Polish National Catholic Church in the United States, as well as for consecrating Arnold Harris Mathew, the founder and first bishop of the Old Catholic Church in Great Britain.
Maria Faustyna Kowalska, OLM, also known as Maria Faustyna Kowalska of the Blessed Sacrament, was a Polish Catholic religious sister and mystic. Faustyna, popularly spelled "Faustina", had apparitions of Jesus Christ which inspired the Catholic devotion to the Divine Mercy, therefore she is sometimes called the "secretary" of Divine Mercy.
Stephen Kaminski was the bishop of an independent Christian diocese known as the Polish Independent Catholic Church of America. He is considered to have been an episcopus vagans.
Antonina Maria Izabela Wiłucka-Kowalska was a Polish religious leader, who served as the first archpriestess of the Catholic Mariavite Church. Wiłucka-Kowalska was the first woman to receive the sacrament of holy orders in Poland and consecration as a bishop.
The Polish-Catholic Church in the Republic of Poland, also known as the Church of Poland or Polish-Catholic Church, is a Polish Old Catholic church in Poland.
The following is a timeline of the history of the city of Płock, Poland.
Roman Maria Jakub Próchniewski was the Prime Bishop of the Mariavite Old Catholic Church from 1945 to 1953.
Julian Pękala was the Primate Bishop of the Polish Catholic Church from 1951 to 1959 as president of the episcopal college, and Primate Bishop from 1965 to 1975. From 1951 to 1959, he was the parish priest of the Cathedral Parish of the Holy Spirit in Warsaw. From March 23, 1961, to October 29, 1965, he served as the bishop ordinary of the Wrocław diocese of the Polish Catholic Church.