Opieka społeczna Kościoła katolickiego na Śląsku do czasów pruskich (1742)

Abstract

This article illustrates the contribution of the Catholic Church into the field of social care in the Silesian region until the time when Silesia was occupied by Prussia in 1742. The most significant effects of the charitable activities were visible in the Middle Ages, when the Silesian Church possessed right material goods and distinguished almoners, and the poor were treated as “res sacra miser”. The wave of the protestant reformation ruined hitherto church systems of the social care and then the Tridentine Council restored the previous importance of the Church in the field of Christian charity. Social care, after the end of the Thirty Years’ War, was one of the manifestations of the Catholic domination in the Silesian region. The whole issue is structured into 5 paragraphs. The beginning of this article is devoted to the open charity which comprised the seek, the old, homeless people and those who did not possess a piece of land or one’s own place of work as well. The next paragraph brings the reader closer to the characteristic and the importance of the Silesian hospitals, which in the Middle Ages, were nursing homes for people in need, and only a few of them were typical hospitals. The third paragraph deals with the categories of the Silesian hospitals which include bishop hospitals, chapter hospitals, convent hospitals and parish hospitals, both in the towns and in the villages. Special attention is given to the hospital convents: Knights of St John of Jerusalem, Regular Canons Guardians of the Holy Sepulcher of Jerusalem, Holy Spirit Friars and St Anthony’s Hospitalers. The final paragraphs discuss the problems of alms-houses, orphanages, so-called “mental homes” and nursing homes for leprosy sufferers as well.