Anna Nowicka-Struska

Pious and Merry Games of the Warsaw Discalced Carmelite Sisters. Bonaventure of St Stanislaus, Emblematy na obraz dziada—A Cycle from a 17th-Century Carmelite Manuscript

The research problem related to the achievements of religious orders in Poland in the early modern period is the incomplete knowledge of literary culture and reading preferences of religious communities in Poland in the 17th century. The popularity of emblems was particularly influenced by female readers and their reading preferences. This is exemplified by the addressees of the cycle presented below and  the discovery of a previously unknown series of emblems of Bonaventure from St Stanislaus, born Stanisław Frezer (1638–1687). The cycle is included in the codex that belonged to Bonaventure, who also authored ascetic and theological writings from the Carmelite circle. The handwriting of the text indicates his authorship. Th e cycle was commissioned by Warsaw Carmelites, whose spiritual patron was Bonaventure of St Stanislaus. The creation of this series of emblems was connected with a kind of social play that the Carmelite nuns engage in during their monastic recreation in 1677.

Seventeen short works were written by Bonaventure of St Stanislaus as complimentary to his painting depicting a beggar. The image, which has not survived to this day, and the circumstances of the creation of the emblem cycle were described in Frezer’s manuscript biography published in the same codex no. 243 held in the
Discalced Carmelite Sisters’ Library in Cracow. The unusual inspiration of the character that belonged to the low culture is evidenced by subsequent works whose titles always evoke the attribute of the beggar, a characteristic feature of this character or his activity: Old age, Grey hair, Beard, Poverty, Coat, Cold, Hunger, Bag, Basket, Pot, Stilt or Stick, Singing, Name of God, Alms, God bless you, Prayers. The motto is biblical, usually partly localized. The subscription to the emblem provides a joint interpretation of the motto and the title, as well as a devotional instruction as to the conduct or devotional practice. Only one manuscript with this text has survived to date.

“Strzały serdeczne z Pisma świętego i ojców świętych zrobione, a od dusze nabożnej ku niebu wypuszczone”. A 17th century adaptation of Herman Hugon’s Pia desideria from a manuscript kept in The Immaculate Conception of Holy Mary Convent of Discalced Carmelite Sisters in Lublin.

Researching the literary output of Polish early modern convents is problematic because what remains of it is dispersed, and the literary culture and reading preferences of 17th Polish nuns have not yet been comprehensively studied. A to-date unknown translation of a fragment of Herman Hugo’s Pia desideria, found in manuscript No. 246 in the Archives of the Discalced Carmelites in Cracow, entitled Strza­ły serdeczne z Pisma świętego i ojców świętych zrobione, a od dusze nabożnej ku niebu wypuszczone, serves as an example here. The manuscript is currently lost. The handwriting indicates the feminine hand of a Discalced Carmelite Sister, Jagnieszka Konstancja od Pana Jezusa Baranka, Iżycka, related to the Immaculate Conception of Holy Mary Convent of Discalced Carmelite Sisters in Lublin, who belonged to the intellectual elite of the Lublin nunnery. Iżycka was a daughter of a Lublin judge, Daniel. She was born on October 25th 1636, took the veil in Lublin in 1653, and died in Poznań on May 27th 1723.
The manuscript was probably written on the turn of the 1650s and 1660s, but certainly before 1665. It is known that in order to answer the Carmelite Sisters’ needs, efforts were undertaken to adapt Herman Hugo’s Pia desideria. This is evident from other Lublin relics. This prayer book was a sort of silva rerum (Pl. sylwa) and included various texts, mostly ascetic, but also a few letters of the sisters, translations of texts written by Saint Teresa of Ávila or Saint John of the Cross. Until now, its value for scholars studying the Carmelites was mainly related to the writings penned by charismatic personages of the convent that comprise: Stefan of Saint Teresa (Hieronim Kucharski), Anna of Jesus (Stobieńska), and Teresa Barbara of Eucharist (z Kretkowskich Zadzikowa). A fragment depicting the nuns’ knowledge of and interest in the famous Jesuit work was until recently unnoticed in the manuscript.
The manuscript was a kind of private prayer book of a Lublin Carmelite Sister. It belonged to the type of small, personal prayer related notes, very characteristic of Carmelite nuns who solicitously filled them with texts and drawings. On page 509 begins a section entitled: Strzały serdeczne z Pisma świętego i ojców świętych zrobione, a od dusze nabożnej ku niebu wypuszczone (Heart-born arrows made from the Holy Script and Church Fathers, and by a pious soul shot at heaven). It is an adaptation of Herman Hugo’s Pia desideria. It contains a free translation of the main title, the titles of individual books, translations of biblical inscriptions and patristic fragments (one for each emblem).
Book one: Wzdychanie dusze pokutującej (The yearning of a soul doing its penance) contains fifteen prose texts that include a biblical motto and a patristic passage. The same number of texts is to be found in book two: Pragnienia dusze świętej (The desires of a saintly soul), and in book three: Wzdychania dusze miełującej Pana Boga (Yearnings of a soul that loves the Lord). The Lublin adaptations of Herman Hugo’s work did not exhaust the sisters’ interest in the Jesuit collection. Printed copies of A.T. Lacki’s Pia desideria (Pobożne pragnienia, Cracow, 1673) preserved in the library of the Cracow convent of Discalced Carmelite Sisters on ul. Kopernika, serves as evidence for this hypothesis.