Patrzyk Jan, Christmas Sermons [1937]

Title: Christmas Sermons.

Author: Fr. Jan Patrzyk (1898–1967) [priest of the Diocese of Przemyśl, pastor in Medenice (1934–1939), a native of Lipinki near Gorlice]

Edited by: Prepared for publication and with a foreword by Rev. Dr. Piotr Bober

Publisher: Księgarnia Krakowska, Kraków

Year of publication: 1937.

Format: 21 cm.

Volume: [VIII], 292 pp.

Binding: Paperback, standard publishing format.

Published in Kraków in 1937, the collection *Kazania Świąteczne* (Holiday Sermons) belongs to the genre of practical homiletic literature that appeared in the 1930s with the parish clergy in mind —the preacher received ready-made texts for the feasts of the liturgical year, which could serve both as models and as direct assistance from the pulpit. The volume was prepared for publication and provided with a preface by Rev. Dr. Piotr Bober. The collection includes, among other things, a sermon for Independence Day on November 11 (pp. 273–282), in which the author bitterly asked whether, for people today, wealth and comfort are all that matter. The publication originated within the parish of Medenice in the Drohobych County, in what was then the Lviv Voivodeship, and as such serves as a testament to religious life in the borderlands of the Second Polish Republic two years before the outbreak of the war that brought that world to an end. For researchers of interwar religious rhetoric, such collections constitute primary source material: they reveal the language actually used to address the faithful, as opposed to the theoretical language found in textbooks.

The author of the sermons, Fr. Jan Patrzyk, was born in 1898 in Lipinki near Gorlice. He was ordained a priest in 1923 in Przemyśl; he served successively as a curate in Łączki Jagiellońskie, Raniżów, and Lubeni; as administrator in Straszydło (1929–1931); as assistant pastor in Trześnia and Racławice; and from 1934 to 1939, he served as parish priest in Medenice. In 1939, fearing the advancing Soviet troops, he left the parish and returned to his home village; according to regional studies, he revived and strengthened the devotion to Our Lady of Lipinka, and for the assistance he provided during the war, he was honored with the “Righteous Among the Nations” medal. He died on October 19, 1967, in Częstochowa, and his funeral took place in Lipinki.

The provenance of this specific piece remains unknown—the volume contains no institutional seals or ownership inscriptions.

This item is of interest to collectors of early Polish sermons, researchers of the religious culture of the Southeastern Borderlands, and collectors of religious literature from the 1930s.

Each piece is complete, with the block intact, though a few leaves are loose from the stitching. The paper is yellowed, with natural spots characteristic of interwar paper; otherwise, the pages are clean and clearly legible. Paperback cover with visible signs of wear.

Catalog ID: 10698-21-A-X