Monachomachia poznańska. Kontrowersje bernardynów poznańskich z franciszkanami w drugiej połowie XVII wieku

Abstrakt

In 1639, Conventual Franciscans (the Minorites) set up a small community in Poznań. However, for nearly two hundred years on the outskirts of the city there had already functioned a convent of the Order of the Minor Brothers Observants, known as Bernardines. This led to a conflict between the two convents. Bernardines rarely founded their convents in cities where there were already con- vents of the Minorites, a religious order that had existed in Poland since the 13th century. On the other hand, as Poznań achieved the status of the capital city of the region in late Middle Ages, the Minor- ites made efforts to settle down in this city. This decision resulted in decades of fierce controversies.
The Minorites who wanted to settle down in Poznań were supported by the local bishop, while the Bernardines by a majority of the already existing convents and the city council. Eventually the superiors of the Minorite convent obtained the approval of the Poznań authorities to build a convent within the city walls, close to the castle. Thanks to the intervention of the new bishop, an agreement was reached in 1667 and the controversies subsided. The longest lasting disagreements between the two convents concerned the right to propagate the Loretan cult, centered on a copy of the Holy House of Mary from Nazareth. The house was said to have been miraculously transferred to Loreto in the 13th century, and around it a great Marian sanctuary developed. Finally, the right to propagate this cult in Poznan was granted to the Bernardines.