An analysis of the monastery reform from 1864 based on the example of the Jasna Góra Monastery in Częstochowa

Abstract

In the consequence of the January Uprising catholic convents in the Kingdom of Poland (among which the convent of Pauline Fathers from Częstochowa was) were regarded by the tsarist’s apparatus as places in which rebirth of anti-Russian moods might appear. For this reason convents’ activity was controlled thoroughly. Certain mechanisms of a control were developed. The mechanisms were mainly used to control finances. Other areas were also controlled, but the control was not as direct as in the case of finances. The government did not interfere much in convents’ inner matters. They assumed that if any accusations (either in social or political sense) against individual monks or the whole community of monks appeared the responsibility rested on superiors of a convent or a diocesan bishop where the acts would take place. The article Standards of functioning and running Roman Catholic convents in the Kingdom of Poland written in 1864 was the document established binding standards concerning the issue.