THE CONGREGATION OF CAMALDOLESE HERMITS OF GÓRA KORONNA

Abstract

The Congregation of Camaldolese Hermits of Góra Koronna founded by Bl. Paul Giustiniani at the beginning of the 16th century in Italy, having a hermitic haracter, became one of the thriving centers of renewal of the Catholic Church in the era of the Reformation. The essence of the founder’s reform was a return to the original hermitic spirit of withdrawing from the world to unite with God in solitude, contemplation and silence. At the beginning of the 17th century, members of the congregation arrived in Poland and Lithuania at the invitation of the magnates and kings Wladislaus IV and John II Casimir, in order to save the Commonwealth from the misfortunes that affl icted it. The founders had a decisive infl uence on the establishment of hermitages, their architecture and the transferred land estates. The crisis that occurred during the partitions aff ected the Camaldolese monks painfully. The partitioning powers deprived the Camaldolese monks of their possessions and liquidated individual hermitages, of which only two have survived to this day: in Bielany near Kraków and in Bieniszew. This article aims to trace the foundations of Camaldolese hermitages in the lands of the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and to respect the regulations and recommendations of the authorities of the Congregation of Camaldolese Hermits of Góra Koronna regarding the architectural assumptions of newly built foundations.