Jan Fraciszek (Blessed Father Michał) Czartoryski among the Academic Youth

Stanisław Gajewski

Abstract

Jan Franciszek Czartoryski (1898 – 1944), who was beatified in 1999, came from a large aristocratic Polish family. He was involved in the Defence of Lviv (1919) and the War of 1920, for which he received military honors. After the war, he graduated from the Faculty of Architecture at Jan Kazimierz University in Lviv (1926) and joined the Dominican Order in Lviv, where he received the name of Michał. After his ordination (1931) he resided in the Cracow convent and twice in the Warsaw convent. He remained in Warsaw during the uprising, which started in 1944 and was directed against the German occupant. He was executed and burned while attending to the wounded insurgents in an improvised hospital. The Saint and the Blessed have often performed great social deeds, which nonetheless did not decide on their sainthood. Neither are they usually recognized in the life of Fr. Michał Czartoryski. This text overlooks his life within the order and does not aspire to present the whole of the Blessed’s life. It focuses solely on his social activity before joining the order, particularly within catholic academic organizations, which he co-founded and in which he merely served as a trusted adviser during his monastic life. The above-mentioned organizations were: The Catholic Academic Youth Society “Rebirth” and St. Dominic’s Academic Retreat Society. Jan Franciszek was the founder of Lviv’s “Rebirth” and one of its leaders. He was the guiding spirit, organizer and chairman of the Retreat Society. These organizations took active part in the process of adopting religious (catholic) principles in the academic community of the Second Polish Republic, opposed by the people involved with the ideology of the formerly fashionable positivism and the so-called “progress”. In order to understand his role in this process, it was necessary to present it in the contemporary historical context, which receives a lot of attention in this text. Michał Czartoryski’s activity in the above-mentioned organizations, which shaped a lot of exceptional social post-war activists including churchmen, publicists, writers and historians, may be counted among the great social deeds he participated in.