The Relationship Between Fr. Józef Pastuszka, the Spiritual Academy of St. Petersburg, and the Catholic University of Lublin

Abstract

The future Professor of the Catholic University of Lublin, Fr. Józef Adam Pastuszka, in 1912, began studies at the Theological Seminary in Sandomierz and continued them until the First World War. It was then, after the hostilities of 1915, that he was, together with his parents and siblings, moved to the East near Brest. When he managed to get to St. Petersburg, he continued his studies at the local seminary for two years. During the year 1917-1918, he was a student at the Spiritual Academy of St. Petersburg, where the University of Lublin had its beginning, a kind of “prehistory.” Fr. Idzi Radziszewski was the Academy’s rector.

In 1917-1918, the rector of the Academy of St. Petersburg undertook the organization of the University of Lublin. In his memories, Fr. Józef Pastuszka expressed his conviction that there existed connections between the Spiritual Academy of St. Petersburg, which ceased to exist after the October Revolution, and the Catholic University of Lublin, established in 1918. These relations were based on the fact that the Archbishop of Mohilev, residing in St. Petersburg as the superior authority of the Academy, transferred the rights and privileges of the Academy to the University of Lublin.

In July 1918, as a subdeacon, Józef Adam Pastuszka returned to Poland. Having completed his first year of study in St. Petersburg, he was directed by the diocesan authorities in Sandomierz to study in Innsbruck (Austria). At the end of October 1920, he received a doctoral degree, and in 1930 he conducted a post-doctoral colloquium at the Jagiellonian University, obtained the title of Associate Professor of Philosophy, and took a job at the Faculty of Theology of the University of Warsaw. In 1934, he was employed at the Faculty of Humanities at the Catholic University of Lublin. When the war broke out in 1939, the University of Lublin was closed. In mid-April 1945, the professor returned to Lublin and took up the former chair of general psychology at the Catholic University of Lublin. In September 1952, he was removed from the University. In 1956, Józef Pastuszka returned to work at the Catholic University of Lublin again.

In July 1969 he retired, while in 1978 he left Lublin to live in the chapter house in Sandomierz. He died on January 13, 1989 in Sandomierz, and on January 17, funeral ceremonies took place in the Cathedral of Sandomierz. On January 21, 1989 he was buried in the home Parish of Rzeczniów.