Published: 2025-11-17

Laity and the monastery of the Canons Regular of the Blessed Virgin Mary on Piasek in Wrocław in the Middle Ages

Anna Pobóg-Lenartowicz
Saeculum Christianum. Historical Writings
Section: Rozprawy i Artykuły
https://doi.org/10.21697/sc.2025.32.2.5

Abstract

Canons Regular, despite belonging to cloistered communities, had numerous contacts with lay people. They owed most of their wealth and income to them. Generosity on the part of the lay people was the result of the pastoral activity conducted by the monks. Despite the fact that the monastery church did not have parish status, the Canons Regular managed to attract many believers to the services, processions and other religious ceremonies they held. This also resulted in the foundation of altars in the church on Piasek by the citizens of Wrocław. A number of lay people worked for the monastery (prosecutors, village heads, owners of inns, butchers, mills, fish ponds, servants). Cooperation with the lay people was not always ideal. This was the case, for example, at the beginning of the 14th century, when, due to influential members of the monks' families, irregularities occurred in the election of the abbot or the imprisonment and death of the head of the Wrocław community. It must be said that lay people and monks were able to benefit from each other's cooperation and thanks to this symbiosis the monks from Piasek managed to survive in Wrocław until secularization in 1810.

Keywords:

Catholic Church, regular canons, lay people, Silesia, Wrocław

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Citation rules

Pobóg-Lenartowicz, A. (2025). Laity and the monastery of the Canons Regular of the Blessed Virgin Mary on Piasek in Wrocław in the Middle Ages. Saeculum Christianum. Historical Writings, 32(2), 63–74. https://doi.org/10.21697/sc.2025.32.2.5

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