Paweł Sczaniecki OSB (1917-1998). Badacz liturgii staropolskiej i dziejów benedyktynów w Polsce

Abstract

Tadeusz Sczaniecki was well-known in the Benedictine order as Father Paweł. He was born on 26th May 1917 in Nawra near Toruń, and died in Tyniec on 27th October 1998. In 1943 he joined the Benedictine abbey in Tyniec near Krakow, restored in 1939, where he was ordained to the priesthood on 6th August 1949. It was in the milieu of Tyniec, which similarly as the mother abbey Saint André in Brugge, was the centre of the liturgical movement in the post-war Poland that Fr Paweł formed his liturgical interests. He remained under the influence of Fr Karol van Oost OSB. As a preparation for the millennium of the Church in Poland (1966), Fr Paweł edited two volumes of source studies on the history of the Holy Mass in Poland entitled Służba Boża w dawnej Polsce [Divine Ministry in Ancient Poland], vols. 1 and 2, Poznań 1962 and 1966. In the years 1968-1972 he studied at the Institute of the History of the Church at the Catholic University of Lublin, writing his Bachelor’s thesis entitled Pocałunek pokoju w liturgii mszalnej na terenie dawnej Polski [The Kiss of Peace in the Mass Liturgy on the Territory of Ancient Poland] and his doctoral dissertation Sacramentum dedicationis. Obrzęd poświęcenia Kościoła i jego znaczenie w dziedzinie religijnej, obyczajowej i kulturalnej na podstawie źródeł staropolskich z XVII wieku [Sacramentum dedicationis. The Rite of the Consecration of a Church and Its Significance in the Religious, Customary and Cultural Spheres on the Basis of 17th-century Sources from Ancient Poland]. After his return to Tyniec, he engaged himself in the history of that Benedictine abbey, publishing numerous studies and papers. The bibliography of his works consists of approximately 200 items. The author himself was well-known as a retreat master and benevolent to all humanist, a faithful son of St. Benedict.