First, I would like to wish you, my readers, a very happy New year. May 2009 be a time of continual growth and enlightenment in our journey to the heavenly Kingdom.
Thank you for following my 2008 project, selections from the writings of the Church Fathers. The Fathers project was my third project. Previous projects included the PNCC Calendar of Saints and selections from the Śpiewniczek Kościelny in 2007 and prayers from Żywoty Świętych – a Polish language lives of the saints in 2006.
Our organizer and first Prime Bishop, Franciszek Hodur, was a strong advocate of education, the printed word, literature, and poetry. He saw these as the fruits of man’s cooperation with God, and the means by which members of the Church could lift themselves up; the path to manifesting their dignity and acquiring economic, social, and cultural standing in their new country. My plan for 2009 is to present a year of poetry in recognition of Bishop Hodur’s emphasis on education, human dignity, freedom, and our ultimate call to union with God.
In The Origin and Growth of the Polish National Catholic Church, the Rev. Stephen Włodarski, Ph.D. writes:
Bishop Francis Hodur was a great advocate of the printed word. He stimulated interest and engendered a desire in his followers to acquire learning. He organized special teaching courses and made available suitable reading material for them. He published the weekly “Straż” (Guard), and later, in 1923, published the weekly “Rola Boża” (God’s Field). Other periodicals published by him were “Nowy Świat” (New World), “Trybuna” (Tribune), “Dziś i Jutro” (Today and Tomorrow), “Wiara i Zycie” (Faith and Life) and the quarterly “Polka” (Polish Woman). In addition to these, Bishop Leon Grochowski published in Chicago, the weekly “Przebudzenie” (The Awakening). A literary book store was opened at St. Stanislaus Parish, in Scranton, where classical literature and various brochures were made available. To encourage reading, cultural evening classes were regularly conducted. Bishop Hodur and other priests lectured on famous writers and scholars, and particularly those of Polish origin. Whenever a famous Pole arrived in the United States, such as Ignacy Paderewski, Henryk Sienkiewicz, Tomasz [Zygmunt] MiłkowskiPseudonym: Teodor Tomasz Jeż (1824-1915), Writer, publicist, and politician. Involved in a clandestine democratic group as a student at the University of Kiev, he went to Hungary and joined its revolutionary anti-Austrian Army during the uprising of 1848-1849. After the fall of the insurrection, he moved to Turkey, joined the Polish Democratic Society (Towarzystwo Demokratyczne Polskie [TDP]), and became its agent in the Balkans. During the January Insurrection of 1863, he organized a small Polish unit there, but he did not manage to join insurrection forces fighting in Poland. In 1887 he co-founded and became the first President of the Polish League (Liga Polska). However, later be did not support its successor, the National Democratic Party (Stronnictwo Narodowo-Demokratyczne [SND]). He authored about eighty works, mostly novels on the history of Poland and the struggle of the Southern Slavs against the Turks. — J. Krzyżanowski, A History of Polish Literature (Warsaw, 1978), 376, PSB, XXI, 263-268 as cited in the Historical Dictionary of Poland, 966-1945, Jerzy Jan Lerski, Piotr Wróbel, and Richard J. Kozicki 1996, Greenwood Publishing Group., Wacław Sieroszewski, and others, they were invited to Scranton where they addressed the assembled and were entertained with poetry recitations and song.
Bishop Hodur greatly admired the poets Juliusz Słowacki (1809 – 1849) and Maria Konopnicka (1842 – 1910).
Konopnicka was Poland’s most inspirational woman poet of the day. In 1906 Bishop Hodur founded a women’s patriotic, cultuiral, and literary society within the Church in her honor – The Maria Konopnicka Societies of the Polish National Catholic Church.
Maria Konopnicka was a prolific poet, novelist, translator and essayist. Her works were noted for their realism, freshness, and spontaneity. In her writings she touched upon the social issues of her time, and exerted a great influence on the next generation of Polish poets and novelists. Konopnicka expressed ideals of democracy and patriotism in her cycle of folk songs and in a poem about peasant emigrants, Pan Balcer w Brazylji (Mr Balcer in Brazil). She also wrote novels for children.
Bishop Hodur was in Poland at the time of Maria Konopnicka’s death, and when the Roman Church refused to bury her, he stepped forward and offered to do so. The Roman Church quickly recanted following Bishop Hodur’s offer. At a celebration in honor of Maria Konopnicka, held in 1920, Bishop Hodur said of her:
She earned merit, above all, in that she spoke to the educated and wealthy strata of the nation, to all working for the enlightenment of the people, to all the disinherited, in the conviction that we are all part of the nation that sooner or later will gain their due rights.
The greatest service Maria Konopnicka performed, however, was in awakening in the soul of the Polish woman love for her responsibilities to the nation, to the family, and yearning for all that is noble, beautiful and good.
Maria Konopnicka tried to point out that the time has passed when a woman tended the home hearth knowing nothing about the world. But new times have come when a woman must be a fellow worker with her husband. She must know the hard responsibilities tied to this life, and share with her husband fate good and bad, to stand by his side, trust him, and uplift his spirit.