Impediti Bishops of the Vilnius Diocese in the Russian Empire Period: A Case of Bishop Adam Stanisław Krasiński

Abstract

Following the partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Vilnius diocese, together with the Samogitian diocese, found itself under the direct supervision of the Russian Empire. It was the intention of lay authorities that the Catholic Church should be governed according to the same principles as the Orthodox Church, which enjoyed the status of the national church in the Russian Empire. Disobedience frequently became a pretext to remove the disloyal hierarch from power over the diocese. This phenomenon became a real plague in the Vilnius diocese. Under the pretext of disloyalty, lay authorities prevented three bishops ordinary of the Vilnius diocese: Adam Stanisław Krasiński (1863), Karol Hryniewiecki (1885), Eduard von Ropp (1907) from performing their duties, exiling the hierarchs. Based on the literature of the subject and analysis of sources, the article presents the history of the removal of Bishop Krasiński from the episcopal throne. His stance during the January Uprising was a pretext to remove the bishop from the Vilnius diocese. The analysis led to the conclusion that Bishop Krasiński’s stance towards the uprising was in accordance with the statement of the Holy See. However, faced with the requirements of the Russian officials, he did not relent and refused to issue a public circular condemning the uprising. Bishop Krasiński was alien to servile obedience towards imperial authorities. The exile to Vyatka (called Kirov since 1934) in inland Russia was the price he paid for his personal dignity and the dignity of his office of the bishop of the Roman Catholic diocese. Bishop Krasiński was released from his exile in 1883. However, the analysis does not confirm the currently prevalent view that he resigned from his office of his own initiative. It was determined that the idea of Krasiński’s letter to the Pope with the request to accept the bishop’s resignation from the office of the head of the Vilnius diocese originated in the Ministry of Internal Affairs in 1877. The Russian government adeptly used the case of the exiled bishop in their negotiations with the Holy See. The fate of the Vilnius bishop was sealed in one of the articles of a preliminary agreement from 1880 between the Russian Empire and the Holy See. Bishop Krasiński’s dismissal from the office of the head of the Vilnius diocese and his exile was in line with the policy of the Russian government towards the Roman Catholic Church.

Keywords

• vilnius diocese
• bishop adam stanisław krasiński
• russian empire
• impediti bishops