Saletyńska Szkoła Apostolska w Puźnikach (1906-1911)

Abstract

Swiss Saletinian priests arrived to Kraków in 1902 to learn the Polish language in order to undertake in the future ministration among the Polish people in the USA. In 1904 they sent several boys from Galicia to the Apostolic School in Belgium counting that after completing it, they would enter the congregation. Soon, because of many volunteers declaring their will to become a Saletinian priest in the future, the Saletinian priests decided to open the Apostolic School in Poland. Aiming at this, in summer 1905 they took over a parish in Puźniki in the Lvov Archdiocese with consent of Archbishop Józef Bilczewski, establishing there the first Saletinian formation house in Poland. In March 1906 the Saletinian priests opened the Apostolic School in Puźniki in a renovated presbytery. Priest Salomon Schalbetter became its Director, whereas priests Antoni Zehner (1907-1910) and Franciszek Dantin (1910-1911) became its prefects. Eight Saletinian priests and several lay persons taught at this school. The Saletinian institution was a secondary private school without public rights, it also prepared initially its students for future monastic and priest life in the Saletinian congregation. In the years 1906-1911 thirty eight students attended the school in Puźniki, the majority of them coming from Galicia from the Lvov Archdiocese. Later thirteen small seminarists entered the noviciate, whereas six ones become the Saletinian priests. In October 1911 considering local conditions, the Saletinian priests transferred the Apostolic School from Puźniki to a newly built school-monastery complex in Dębowiec near Jasło.