One or two tombs? Transformation of the image of time and sacred space of Lublin in the works by Jan Długosz on the example of the St Stanisław Dominican Church

Abstract

The article is an attempt to direct the reader’s attention to the doubts concerning credibility of the sources indicating the time and circumstances of bringing the relics of the True Cross to the Lublin Dominican Church. The existing sources basically differ from each other in this respect, which made researchers take an attitude towards credibility of the accounts, or make attempts at reconciling their contents. An analysis of the context of the events connected with the possible circumstances of bringing the relics from Ruthenia to Lublin shows that it is possible to fix the date of the event in the first decades of the 15th century and to indicate King Władysław II Jagiełło and the Polish Dominicans as the people who were especially involved in it. At the same time it means that it is necessary to depart from the literal understanding of Jan Długosz’s account of the circumstances of bringing the relics to Lublin, and also to ask the question about the causes why he made changes in his account of the events.