Augustyn Kordecki
He was born to a bourgeois, large family of Marcin and Dorota (he had an older sister Katarzyna and a younger brother Tomasz).
On November 16, 1603, he was baptized in the parish church of St. Catherine in Iwanowice, and the godparents were Maciej, son of the mayor, and Elżbieta Olbińska.
He made his profession on March 25, 1634, in Jasna Góra on the hands of the provincial, Father Bartłomiej Bolesławski, OSPPE.
Initially, he was entrusted with educational work, then from mid-December 1635 he was a lecturer at Jasna Góra, and in 1636 he was appointed deputy novice master in forming future Pauline monks.
On October 15 of that year, he performed at Jasna Góra as ( Latin lector conferentiarum ), that is, lecturer of moral theology.
In July 1638 he appeared as a companion of a Jasna Góra discrete, i.e. a representative of the convent for the provincial chapter, at which he was elected prior of Wieluń.
At the congress of priors and discretes, convened on February 15, 1640, by the then General Father Mikołaj Staszewski, OSPPE, to Jasna Góra, he was elected a representative of the Polish province in Rome for the revision of the monastic constitutions.
On July 11, 1643, he was entrusted with the function of prior in Wieluń, as a result of the resignation of Father Tomasz Bieniaszewicz, OSPPE.
A few months later, on March 2, 1645, he resigned from this position and left for Beszowa to perform the duties of the sub-prince of the local monastery.
In connection with the opening of the novice house at the church of St. Barbara near Jasna Góra on October 1, 1646, he took the vacant office of prior in Oporów, who was entrusted to him by Father Mikołaj Staszewski, OSPPE.
During the times of Kordecki, music life flourished at Jasna Góra, a vocal-instrumental band composed of monks and lay people was active there.
On the part of the musicians, the document was signed by the then conductor of the ensemble ( Latin: Magister Capellae ), Father Władysław Leszczyński, OSPPE.
He was also elected vicar general and four times the definitor of the province Father Augustyn Kordecki died, being the provincial during a visit to the monastery in Wieruszów, after fainting in the presence of praying confreres on March 20, 1673, around 4:00 pm.
The procession was led by three Paulines with the Prior of Wieruszów, and also the vicar of the province, Father Konstanty Jaroszewski, OSPPE.
He sent a letter to King Charles X Gustav - now stored in the Stockholm archives, in which he agreed to surrender the fortress in exchange for a guarantee of the sanctuary's integrity.
In the opinion of prof. Idzi Panic, Fr Augustine acted in a thoughtful manner and turned out to be an effective defender, and the letter to the Swedish king was intended to delay the attack.
In his diary of the siege of Częstochowa - Nowa Gigantomachia , he wrote, among others:We urgently need to bear this in mind that we have undertaken to defend the Church of God and the good of the whole dear Motherland.
Many poets devoted their poems to him, including: Cyprian Kamil Norwid, Teofil Lenartowicz, Wincenty Pol, Jan Kasprowicz and Stanisław Wyspiański.
The Polish idea has never found its full embodiment as in it.Besides, his character is shown in many pictures, the most important of which are: In the second half of the nineteenth century and in the first years of the twentieth century, they painted the figure of Father Kordecki: Jan Matejko : Father Kordecki on the walls of Częstochowa , Cyprian Kamil Norwid: (drawing Kordecki on Wałach Częstochowa ), and also Michał Elwiro Andriolli, Walery Eliasz-Radzikowski, Henryk Siemiradzki, Włodzimierz Tetmajer, Henryk Rodakowski, Piotr Stachiewicz and Kazimierz Alchimowicz.
In Szczytniki, on the road leading to Kalisz, a stone monument was founded, consecrated on October 30, 1938, by Cardinal August Hlond, in the presence of Marshal Edward Rydz-Śmigły and Bishop.
Jan Kaliszewski - designed by prof. Leon Machowski - a new monument to commemorate the 600th anniversary of Jasna Góra on the site of the former.
