Church of the Holy Spirit, Warsaw

Church of the Holy Spirit in Warsaw
Church of the Holy Spirit in Warsaw
Kościół Św. Ducha w Warszawie
	Church of the Holy Spirit from Freta Street
Location	Warsaw
Country	Poland
Denomination	Roman Catholic
History
Dedication	The Holy Spirit
Architecture
Architect(s)	Józef Piola; Józef Szymon Bellotti
Style	Baroque
Completed	1707-1717
Administration
Archdiocese	Warsaw
Deanery	Śródmieście
Clergy
Pastor(s)	Marek Tomczyk

The Church of the Holy Spirit in Warsaw is a church at 3 Długa Street, in Warsaw's New Town.

The church was originally built in Gothic style from wood alongside a hospital in the 14th century. It was probably the first hospital of the type in Mazovia and was located just outside the walls of the Warsaw Old Town.

It was founded by Janusz the Elder, Duke of Warsaw, and handed over to the city in 1388.

History

With the existing small church of the Holy Spirit, the councillors and citizens of Warsaw wanted a new hospital and it was set up for this purpose supposedly by Mikołaj Panczatka, one of the group, who gave the church some of his land. From 1425 it was a hostel for the poor and in 1473 a chapel, temporary accommodation for guests or pilgrims, and a monastery were added. The parish priest was also the manager of the hospital at that time. The first pastor of the church, known by name, was Jędrzej Pronobis in 1473. Most of the funding received (from people such as Sigismund I the Old and Bona Sforza) related to the hospital.

Documents also mention parish priests: John Szeliga (1574), Wojciech Pruszczyński (1579) and Wojciech Badowski (1633). In 1629 the bishop of Poznan Maciej Łubieński placed it within the Holy Trinity parish (Parafia Świętej Trójcy na Solcu), and its buildings were completed, at the behest of the king, as part of the Birgittine Order.

In 1579, the brothers of the nearby church of St George were moved to the school at the Church of the Holy Spirit.

During the Swedish invasion (the Deluge) the church fell into disrepair and the church suffered a fire but a magistrate's resolution from 1664, ensured that the hospital had an income. In 1665, in honour of the defence of Warsaw, the magistrate of Warsaw provided the priests of the Pauline order with a church.

In 1699 the foundation stone was laid for the new church, which was built from 1707 to 1717 in Baroque style by Józef Piola and Józef Szymon Bellotti. A friend of King Augustus the Strong, the voivode of Chełm Rybiński was invited for the ceremonial laying of the foundation stone, and he set aside 40,000 Polish złotys for the construction, which at the time was a very large sum. Construction continued all the way until 1746, when the chapel dedicated to Our Lady of Częstochowa was built.

In 1708, Warsaw and Poland was suffering from an outbreak of the plague. During this time, the Pauline brothers were said to have organised the first pilgrimage from Warsaw to the Jasna Gora monastery in Częstochowa to pray to the Virgin Mary to save them from the plague. The pilgrimage continues to this day.

By 1800 there were nine priests as well as two German professors and four students studying theology in the monastery.

In January 1807 the army of Napoléon Bonaparte used the monastery as army barracks. After the war, the monastery was briefly regained (the abbot at the time was Teodor Fortuński), however in 1819 the Tsarist administration ordered the priests to be removed to Częstochowa and that the church was to be administered by the German Brotherhood of St. Benno. Successive rectors were priests of German origin including Lüdicke, Amman, Gelderland, and Ballach.

In 1825 the monastery opened the main seminary as a theological faculty and later was transferred to the Franciscans. The remaining part of the monastery was rented as apartments.

After the January Uprising in 1863, a statue of the Virgin Mary by Czajkowski was placed in front of the church.

In 1944 the church was almost totally destroyed by the Germans. The interior of the church and the roofs were burnt completely with only the altar surviving.

In 1947, the Polish Primate Cardinal Hlond, returned the church to the administration of the Pauline order and the church was rebuilt in 1956 in the same form as it was before the war.