Zbigniew Morsztyn

Zbigniew Morsztyn (* approx. 1628 in Cracow ; † December 13, 1689 in Koenigsberg ) was a Polish writer of the Baroque period and a representative of Polish Unitarianism .

life and work

Morsztyn was born in Kraków (Polish: Kraków ) in 1628 . As a young man he worked for the Polish aristocratic house Radziwiłł , to which he remained lifelong. Between 1648 and 1657 he was in the Polish army and fought on the side of Poland in the Russo-Polish War and Russo-Swedish War against Russia and Sweden. After the war, he married Sophia Czaplicównę in 1659. After the persecution of the Polish Unitarians ( Polish Brothers ) initiated by the Counter-Reformation , of which he was a member at an early age, he moved into exile in the neighboring Duchy of Prussia in 1662 . In Prussia he became one of the most important representatives of the Unitarians there. From 1669 he worked as administrator of the estate of the Duchess Louis Carolina Radziwill. In December 1689 Morsztyn died in Königsberg in Prussia and was buried in Alt Rudowken ( Stara Rudówka in Polish ) in 1690 .

As a writer, Morsztyn dealt in his younger years mainly with his experiences as a soldier . Later he mainly dealt with religious topics.

literature

• Joachim Bahlcke (Ed.): Religious Refugees. Causes, forms and effects of early modern denominational migration in Europe . Lit Verlag, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-8258-6668-6 .
• Krzysztof Dybciak (Ed.): Poland in Exile. An anthology . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1988, ISBN 3-518-40143-2 .