1.
Poland
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Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe, situated between the Baltic Sea in the north and two mountain ranges in the south. Bordered by Germany to the west, the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south, Ukraine and Belarus to the east, the total area of Poland is 312,679 square kilometres, making it the 69th largest country in the world and the 9th largest in Europe. With a population of over 38.5 million people, Poland is the 34th most populous country in the world, the 8th most populous country in Europe, Poland is a unitary state divided into 16 administrative subdivisions, and its capital and largest city is Warsaw. Other metropolises include Kraków, Wrocław, Poznań, Gdańsk and Szczecin, the establishment of a Polish state can be traced back to 966, when Mieszko I, ruler of a territory roughly coextensive with that of present-day Poland, converted to Christianity. The Kingdom of Poland was founded in 1025, and in 1569 it cemented a political association with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania by signing the Union of Lublin. This union formed the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, one of the largest and most populous countries of 16th and 17th century Europe, Poland regained its independence in 1918 at the end of World War I, reconstituting much of its historical territory as the Second Polish Republic. In September 1939, World War II started with the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany, followed thereafter by invasion by the Soviet Union. More than six million Polish citizens died in the war, after the war, Polands borders were shifted westwards under the terms of the Potsdam Conference. With the backing of the Soviet Union, a communist puppet government was formed, and after a referendum in 1946. During the Revolutions of 1989 Polands Communist government was overthrown and Poland adopted a new constitution establishing itself as a democracy, informally called the Third Polish Republic. Since the early 1990s, when the transition to a primarily market-based economy began, Poland has achieved a high ranking on the Human Development Index. Poland is a country, which was categorised by the World Bank as having a high-income economy. Furthermore, it is visited by approximately 16 million tourists every year, Poland is the eighth largest economy in the European Union and was the 6th fastest growing economy on the continent between 2010 and 2015. According to the Global Peace Index for 2014, Poland is ranked 19th in the list of the safest countries in the world to live in. The origin of the name Poland derives from a West Slavic tribe of Polans that inhabited the Warta River basin of the historic Greater Poland region in the 8th century, the origin of the name Polanie itself derives from the western Slavic word pole. In some foreign languages such as Hungarian, Lithuanian, Persian and Turkish the exonym for Poland is Lechites, historians have postulated that throughout Late Antiquity, many distinct ethnic groups populated the regions of what is now Poland. The most famous archaeological find from the prehistory and protohistory of Poland is the Biskupin fortified settlement, dating from the Lusatian culture of the early Iron Age, the Slavic groups who would form Poland migrated to these areas in the second half of the 5th century AD. With the Baptism of Poland the Polish rulers accepted Christianity and the authority of the Roman Church
2.
Bishop
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A bishop is an ordained, consecrated, or appointed member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight. Within these churches, bishops are seen as those who possess the full priesthood, Some Protestant churches including the Lutheran and Methodist churches have bishops serving similar functions as well, though not always understood to be within apostolic succession in the same way. Priests, deacons and lay ministers cooperate and assist their bishop in shepherding a flock, the earliest organization of the Church in Jerusalem was, according to most scholars, similar to that of Jewish synagogues, but it had a council or college of ordained presbyters. In, we see a system of government in Jerusalem chaired by James the Just. In, the Apostle Paul ordains presbyters in churches in Anatolia, in Timothy and Titus in the New Testament a more clearly defined episcopate can be seen. We are told that Paul had left Timothy in Ephesus and Titus in Crete to oversee the local church, Paul commands Titus to ordain presbyters/bishops and to exercise general oversight, telling him to rebuke with all authority. Early sources are unclear but various groups of Christian communities may have had the bishop surrounded by a group or college functioning as leaders of the local churches, eventually, as Christendom grew, bishops no longer directly served individual congregations. Instead, the Metropolitan bishop appointed priests to each congregation. Around the end of the 1st century, the organization became clearer in historical documents. While Ignatius of Antioch offers the earliest clear description of monarchial bishops he is an advocate of monepiscopal structure rather than describing an accepted reality. To the bishops and house churches to which he writes, he offers strategies on how to pressure house churches who dont recognize the bishop into compliance. Other contemporary Christian writers do not describe monarchial bishops, either continuing to equate them with the presbyters or speaking of episkopoi in a city, plainly therefore we ought to regard the bishop as the Lord Himself — Epistle of Ignatius to the Ephesians 6,1. Your godly bishop — Epistle of Ignatius to the Magnesians 2,1, therefore as the Lord did nothing without the Father, either by Himself or by the Apostles, so neither do ye anything without the bishop and the presbyters. — Epistle of Ignatius to the Magnesians 7,1. Be obedient to the bishop and to one another, as Jesus Christ was to the Father, and as the Apostles were to Christ and to the Father, — Epistle of Ignatius to the Magnesians 13,2. Apart from these there is not even the name of a church, — Epistle of Ignatius to the Trallesians 3,1. Follow your bishop, as Jesus Christ followed the Father, and the presbytery as the Apostles, and to the deacons pay respect, as to Gods commandment — Epistle of Ignatius to the Smyrnans 8,1. He that honoureth the bishop is honoured of God, he that doeth aught without the knowledge of the bishop rendereth service to the devil — Epistle of Ignatius to the Smyrnans 9,1
3.
Archbishop
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In Christianity, an archbishop is a bishop of higher rank or office. In some cases, like the Lutheran Church of Sweden, it is the denomination leader title, an archbishop may be granted the title, or ordained as chief pastor of a metropolitan see or another episcopal see to which the title of archbishop is attached. Episcopal sees are generally arranged in groups in which the bishop who is the ordinary of one of them has certain powers and he is known as the metropolitan archbishop of that see. As well as the more numerous metropolitan sees, there are 77 Roman Catholic sees that have archiepiscopal rank. In some cases, such a see is the one in a country, such as Luxembourg or Monaco. In others, the title of archdiocese is for reasons attributed to a see that was once of greater importance. Some of these archdioceses are suffragans of a metropolitan archdiocese, an example is the Archdiocese of Avignon, which is a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Marseille, Another such example is the Archdiocese of Trnava, Slovakia. Others are immediately subject to the Holy See and not to any metropolitan archdiocese and these are usually aggregated to an ecclesiastical province. An example is the Archdiocese of Hobart in Australia, associated with the Metropolitan ecclesiastical province of Melbourne, the ordinary of such an archdiocese is an archbishop, however, especially in the Anglican Communion, not all archbishops dioceses are called archdioceses. Since then, the title of Coadjutor Archbishop of the see is considered sufficient, the rank of archbishop is conferred on some bishops who are not ordinaries of an archdiocese. They hold the rank not because of the see that they head, the bishop transferred is then known as the Archbishop-Bishop of his new see. An example is Gianfranco Gardin, appointed Archbishop-Bishop of Treviso on 21 December 2009, the title borne by the successor of such an archbishop-bishop is merely that of Bishop of the see, unless he also is granted the personal title of Archbishop. The distinction between metropolitan sees and non-metropolitan archiepiscopal sees exists for titular sees as well as for residential ones, the Annuario Pontificio marks titular sees of the former class with the abbreviation Metr. and the others with Arciv. Many of the sees to which nuncios and heads of departments of the Roman Curia who are not cardinals are assigned are not of archiepiscopal rank. In that case the person who is appointed to such a position is given the title of archbishop. They are usually referred to as Archbishop of the see, not as its Archbishop-Bishop, until 1970, such archbishops were transferred to a titular see. There can be several Archbishops Emeriti of the see, the 2008 Annuario Pontificio listed three living Archbishops Emeriti of Taipei. There is no Archbishop Emeritus of a see, an archbishop who holds a titular see keeps it until death or until transferred to another see
4.
Duchy of Siewierz
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The Duchy of Siewierz was a Silesian duchy with its capital in Siewierz. The area was part of the original Duchy of Silesia established after the death of Duke Bolesław III Wrymouth in 1138 during the times of the fragmentation of Poland, Siewierz in Upper Silesia was ruled by the Silesian Piasts as part of the Duchy of Bytom under Duke Casimir. In 1312 he granted the town to his youngest son Mieszko, in 1337 it was acquired by Casimir I, Duke of Cieszyn, whose scion Wenceslaus I sold it to the Archbishop of Kraków in 1443. Since 1443, after its acquisition by Archbishop Zbigniew Cardinal Oleśnicki for 6,000 silver groats, it was, alongside the Duchy of Nysa, on many levels this tiny principality was almost a country within a country, it had its own laws, treasury and army. The junction of the duchy with Lesser Poland was concluded when in 1790 the Great Sejm formally incorporated the Duchy as a Land of the Polish Crown into the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. In the course of the Third Partition of Poland in 1795, in 1800 the Kraków bishops moved their residence away from Sieiwerz. In 1918, Siewierz became part of the Second Polish Republic, the bishops of Kraków continued to use the title of a Prince of Siewierz until the death of Adam Stefan Sapieha in 1951. The Dukes of Montebello claim the title prince de Sievers, due to their descent from Marshall Lannes, Dukes of Silesia History of Siewierz Prince-Bishopric of Warmia Sturdy, David. About Siewierz in Słownik geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego
5.
Adam Stefan Sapieha
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Prince Adam Stefan Stanisław Bonifacy Józef Sapieha was a Polish cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church who served as Archbishop of Kraków. Between 1922–1923 he was a senator of the Second Polish Republic, in 1946, Pope Pius XII created him Cardinal. Sapieha was born in 1867 in the castle of Krasiczyn, then part of the Austrian Empire and his family, originally from Lithuania, were members of the Polish nobility. He was the youngest of the seven children of Prince Adam Stanisław Sapieha-Kodenski and Princess Jadwiga Klementyna Sanguszko-Lubartowicza and his elder brother prince Władysław Leon Sapieha is the great-grand father of queen Mathilde of Belgium. After graduating from gymnasium in Lwów in 1886, he enrolled in the Law Department at the University of Vienna, in 1887 on the basis of his certificate from the University of Vienna Sapieha continued studies at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków. After two years he passed the examination and returned to Vienna for further studies, where he remained until 1890, obtaining the certificate of completion. In the same year he began studies at the University of Innsbruck. After returning to the country in 1897, he was designated vice-rector of the diocesan seminary in Lwów. He resigned because he was discouraged by the rules of education of young priests. After a half-year trip across the United States of America, he was designated a vicar of the St. Nicholas congregation in Lwów in October 1902. He was educated at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, where he was ordained as priest on 1 October 1893 by Bishop Jan Puzyna de Kosielsko. Father Sapieha did pastoral work in the Diocese of Lemberg, in whose seminary he served as a faculty member for four years until becoming its rector. In October 1895 he started studies in Rome, where he obtained a doctorate of civil. At the same time he studied diplomacy at the Pontifical Academy of Ecclesiastical Nobles, Sapieha was appointed Bishop of Kraków on 24 November 1911 and was consecrated by Pope St. Pius X in the Sistine Chapel on 7 December of the same year. In 1915, he established a committee for victims of World War I. After World War I, Sapieha became an opponent of the new concordat negotiated between the Holy See and the newly resurrected Polish state. He argued that the Polish Church should be independent of the state. Sapieha thought that the Polish should decide its affairs without outside influence, Sapieha was not elevated to the cardinalate by Ratti after he became Pope Pius XI in 1922
6.
Piotr Gembicki
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Piotr Gembicki, Deputy Crown Chancellor and Bishop of Przemyśl from 1636, Grand Crown Chancellor from 1638, Bishop of Kraków from 1642 in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Piotr Gembicki born into a Polish noble family of Nałęcz coat of arms in Gniezno on 10 October 1585 and began his career early. Later he became the secretary of king Sigismund III Vasa and regent of the Crowns Chancery, after Sigismunds son, Władysław IV Vasa, succeeded to the Polish throne in 1632, Gembicki led the diplomatic mission to Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor. In 1635 he took part in the negotiations with Muscovy following the Smolensk War, in December 1635 he became the Deputy Crown Chancellor and Bishop of Przemyśl. Since then, his influence and wealth grew, and in 1638 he became the Great Crown Chancellor and he was a supporter of Habsburgs, which earned him a nickname covert Spaniard, and an opponent of the pro-French faction. He advocated tightening Polish control over the Commonwealth vassal, prince-elector of the Duchy of Prussia, fighting for power and influence with magnate Jerzy Ossoliński, he became an ally of Adam Kazanowski and opponent of queen Cecilia Renata. In 1642 he lost the battle and retired from court politics to the see of Bishop of Kraków. He died in Racibórz on 14 July 1657 and his body was brought back to Poland and buried inside the Wawel Cathedral in Kraków. Viewed by szlachta as a prideful and greedy, he supported the position of the Commonwealth king over orders from distant Rome when disputes arose between two powers. He disliked the Jesuits and often sent complains about their actions destabilising the fragile religious tolerance in the Commonwealth
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