St. John the Baptist in the Shadow of St. Benedict of Nnursia History of Puchaczów

Abstract

Puchaczów is a small settlement, located five kilometers away from Łęczna, east of Lublin. In 1526, King Sigismund I allowed to locate a town here (city rights suspended in 1870), leaving it under the custody of the Benedictine Friars from Sieciechów, who stayed here until the early 19th century. The parish was erected by Bishop of Cracow Piotr Tomicki in 1533. The original wooden parish church burnt down in 1623. A new church, built with the support of the Bishop of Lviv Andrzej Próchnicki, was consecrated in 1633. An initiative to build a brick-and-stone church emerged in the late 18th century, leading to the consecration of a new temple in 1786. Researchers of the history of the town can be attracted by its coat-of-arms. It depicts St. John the Baptist. On the one hand, it is different from a lot of other heraldic representations of this saint, while also being an example of a peculiar "cohabitation" of two saints on one coat-of-arms. This other patron saint is Benedict of Nursia - the patron of the family that owned Puchaczów.