Published: 2024-11-291

Life and accomplishments of the archbishop Jan Maria Michał Kowalski (1871-1942)

Abstract

The article approaches the life and activity of the archbishop Jan Maria Michał Kowalski (1871-1942), the best known Mariavite priest, mystic and theologian, the leader of the undivided Mariavite Church and subsequently of the Catholic Mariavite Church (Felicjanów group). It presents his person and his work, with particular focus on the ecclesial and social activities in the Mariavite Church. The individual parts of the article discuss the subsequent stages of Jan Kowalski’s life path: his childhood, adolescence, seminary & academic education, ministerial service in the Roman Catholic Church, the circumstances and motivations causing him to join the Mariavite movement, conflict with the Roman Catholic hierarchy, excommunication by the Roman Inquisition, consecration as a bishop by the Old Catholic hierarchs in Utrecht, community involvement, reforms implemented in the Old Catholic Mariavite Church (1922-1935) and the Felicjanów group (1935-1939), trials and persecutions as well as his time in Dachau concentration camp, and his martyr’s death in the Hartheim euthanasia centre. The elaboration discusses the merits of the first leader of the Mariavite denomination for the organizational development of the Mariavite Church and the conflicts with opponents, as well as his main theological works and literary translations.

Keywords:

Mariavitism, Old Catholic Mariavite Church, Catholic Mariavite Church, archbishop, church reforms, social activities, artistic output

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Przedpełski, B., & Michalski, M. (2024). Life and accomplishments of the archbishop Jan Maria Michał Kowalski (1871-1942). Theological Yearbook, 66(3), 435–518. https://doi.org/10.36124/rt.2024.17

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