The Beginnings and Development of the Benedictine Covent at Sierpc in the 17th Century

Abstract

The convent of the Benedictine sisters at Sierpc was founded by Zofia Potulicka née Zbąska, widow of Stanisław Potulicki, chamberlain of Poznań, in 1624. The first sisters came to Sierpc in the following year, sent there by the reformer of the congregation Magdalena Mortęska, prioress of the convent at Chełmno. The first small wooden building was burned in 1695, and a new building was constructed in the years 1695-1699 next to the Gothic church of the Assumption of Our Lady, on a hill called Loret. There also was another church next to the convent, St. Roch’s, sometimes referred to in the sources as „the chapel”. It was probably built in the years 1609-1625, and was used as the convent chapel. It seems that only seven sisters came to Sierpc in 1625. Later their number grew substantially, reaching forty-eight in the middle of the 17th century. The sisters were mostly noblewomen. The Benedictine sisters of Sierpc did not run a formal school, but it is known that thay were educating girls in the 18th and 19th centuries.

The church of the Assumption at Sierpc had been the goal of pilgrimages even before the arrival of the sisters. It was founded at the end of the 15th century and held a miraculous statue of Our Lady. It was staffed by mansionary priests, who ran a school for boys and watched over the growing Marian cult. But gradually their number diminished and charge of the cult was taken over by the Benedictine sisters. It is largely owing to them that the cult continues to our day.