Ladislaus Zaleski

Archbishop Ladislaus Zaleski

Archbishop Ladislaus Zaleski (left) and Bishop Alois Benziger , 1900

Archbishop Ladislaus Zaleski (right, of the two white-clad bishops in the center of the picture), 1914 in the seminary of Mangalore, India

Ladislaus Michael Zaleski , also Vladislaus Michael Zaleski or Zalesky , Polish Władysław Michał Bonifacy Zaleski (born May 2, 1852 in Welona , Lithuania , † October 5, 1925 in Rome ) was a Catholic archbishop , missionary pioneer, apostolic delegate of the East Indies and Latin Patriarch of Antioch .

Live and act

His father was a Polish nobleman, owner of the Welona manor. Ladislaus Zaleski entered the seminary in Warsaw in 1880 and moved to the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome in 1881 . There he did his doctorate and also received diplomatic training. In 1882 Zaleski was ordained a priest in Florence. Then he was used in various Roman congregations and he took part in diplomatic missions of the Apostolic See to Spain (1884), India (1886) and England (1887). From 1889 to 1890 Ladislaus Zaleski worked as a Nunciature Councilor in Paris.

In 1890 the Lithuanian was sent to India as a special papal delegate, and on March 5, 1892 he was appointed permanent Apostolic Delegate of the East Indies and at the same time titular Archbishop of Thebes .

Archbishop Zaleski resided in Kandy , where he founded a central seminary from which 51 bishops and 3 cardinals emerged over the years. He became a profound expert on Indian missions and their special circumstances. In a biography of his secretary Alois Benziger , who later became Bishop of Quilon , it says:

“ Archbishop Zalesky, as Apostolic Delegate, was in charge of all Roman Catholic missions in East India, that is, an area that was about half the size of all of Europe, including Russia, and in which 300 million people lived. His next colleague was Father Alois Benziger, who took care of the secretarial business independently. Letters from all parts of India, reports, requests, complaints, complaints and calls for help got into his hands. He had to write the answers to the Indian bishops, initiate negotiations, assign missionaries, and resolve difficulties. It was his job to keep Rome informed; he was responsible for drafting the inspectorate's reports. These inspectorate reports presuppose that Father Benziger also went on the inspection trips. In this way he got to know all of India, the countries, the peoples and states, their kings and princes, the different races and religions, the character of the individual tribes. "

Ladislaus Zaleski presided over several provincial synods in India, worked on expanding the local church hierarchy and promoted the increase in missionaries. In 1917 the missionary bishop returned to Rome and was named honorary Latin Patriarch of Antioch on December 4, 1916 . Zaleski is the author of many ethnographic and mission history works; u. a. he also wrote under the pseudonym "Pierre Courtenay". He was the rediscoverer and admirer of the later beatified Indian priest Joseph Vaz (1651-1711), an apostle of Ceylon . He wrote a multiple published biography about him and sustainably promoted his cult at the seminar in Kandy. He also researched the Indian martyr Devasahayam Pillai (1712–1752), who was beatified in 2012, and revived his veneration.

Archbishop's tomb in Pune

Ladislaus Zaleski died in Rome in 1925, but in his will he wished to be buried with his confreres in India. When the Indian Central Seminary, which he had founded in Kandy, was moved to Pune in 1955 , his remains were also transferred there. They rest under a tombstone in front of the altar of the seminary chapel.

Archbishop Zaleski was the main consecrator of Bishops Alois Benziger , Augustine Kandathil and Alexander Chulaparambil, who were important for India .

literature

• Karol Karski:  ZALESKI, Vladislaus. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 14, Bautz, Herzberg 1998, ISBN 3-88309-073-5 , Sp. 335-336.

Web links

• Entry on Ladislaus Zaleski on catholic-hierarchy.org ; accessed on December 18, 2017.

Individual evidence

1. ^ History of the Kandy Seminary
2. ↑ Friedrich Donauer: On apostles in India. The Swiss Bishop Aloisius Benziger. Benziger Verlag, Einsiedeln 1944.
3. ↑ Ladislaus Zaleski and the adoration of the Blessed Joseph Vaz (penultimate section) ( Memento of the original from September 19, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
4. ↑ Source for the promotion of the worship of Joseph Vaz, by Archbishop Zaleski