Ewa Cybulska-Bohuszewicz

“For Those Who Followed Him He Made Processions with Singing”: On the Influence of the Tridentine Reform on Various Manifestations of Piety (on the Basis of Żywoty świętych by Piotr Skarga)

The aim of the article is to present how texts such as Żywoty świętych (first edition in Vilnius, 1579) could influence the shaping of modern post-Tridentine expression of piety. Claims were advanced over the past decades that the hagiographic literature did not bring anything new to religious culture, and that on the contrary, it contributed to the consolidation of petrified, medieval patterns and thus impeded the spiritual development of an individual. Such views were articulated by researchers such as Henryk Barycz or Janusz Tazbir, who failed to recognize the threads of the new post-Tridentine theology and the related patterns and forms of piety in Skarga’s text. The analysis presented here aims to refute these claims, arguing that Żywoty is a modern text, rooted in the spirit of the Tridentine reform. Similar arguments were put forth by Anna Kapuścińska in her monograph, and by Alina Nowicka-Jeżowa in her articles on the changes in Polish religious awareness against the background of other European countries at that time. Their findings are presented in the introductory part of the article. In the next part, the author focuses on describing specific expressions of piety (such as pilgrimages, processions, image worship, etc.) and how they are reflected in Żywoty. As it turns out, these are not relics of the Middle Ages, with Skarga’s narrative overtly encouraging his readers to be active, rather than passively perpetuate the usual patterns and dogmas. Żywoty is therefore a modern work, in line with the recommendations of the Council, which is also related to the fact that its author came from the environment of the Jesuits, who were extremely progressive at the time and advocated their own concepts of spiritual development, following the teaching of the founder of the congregation, Ignacy Loyola.

“You Are Evidently Inferior Even to Beasts.” Zoomorphic Incarnations of Satan in Piotr Skarga’s The Lives of the Saints

The paper presents the animal incarnations of Satan in the The Lives of the Saints (Żywoty świętych) by Piotr Skarga. Animal motifs are not independent elements in this work, but only part of larger narrative entireties, so-called miracula, which have not yet been analysed. Scholars (H. Barycz, J. Tazbir) considered them elements that depreciated a monumental work of art. These views have been revised recently. Newer findings (by authors such as A. Kapuścińska, A. Ceccherelli, A. Nowicka- Jeżowa, K. Kiszkowiak) shed a slightly different light on the miraculous plots in The Lives of the Saints. However, even these researchers do not offer detailed analyses of miracula. On the contrary, they publish panoramic, comprehensive studies that usually present such texts in the context of a specific problem (e.g. the influence on the shape of post-Tridentine devotion). In this paper, Cybulska attempts to interpret animal motifs using the findings of the so-called Silesian school of micrology. This method seems appropriate as it involves focusing on detail. Moreover, as Aleksander Nawarecki stated, “The aspect of degradation, or rejection is important.” This is how miracula were perceived for a long time—as elements that diminish the value of The Lives of the Saints. Are miracular motifs, and specifically animal motifs present in them, irrelevant from the perspective of literary studies? This paper is intended to demonstrate that this is not the case. Although scattered in a large text and seemingly of little value to its interpretation, these motifs are in fact carriers of important content. They show how the nature and ontology of evil were understood and how the influence of evil on man was perceived in the epoch in which Lives were written.