Letter of Rev. Izaak Issakowicz to Wincenty Pol

An autograph (manuscript) of a letter of Fr. Izaak Mikołaj Isakowicz (1824-1901), ordained in 1848 by the Armenian archbishop Samuel Stefanowicz, known as the Golden Mouth, to Wincenty Pol (1807-1872), a poet, of January 11th, 1867. The letter was purchased for the collection of the Wincenty Pol Museum at the RARA AVIS auction in Krakow in 2001.

The letter of Fr. Isakowicz was sent from Stanisławów, where he was the parish priest of the Armenian parish from 1865. He had known and been friends with the author of Janusz’s Songs (Pieśń Janusza) for over a dozen years. They met during the poet’s visits to Tyśmienica, Suuczawa and Stanisławów, and also corresponded with each other. Numerous autographs (manuscripts) of the priest’s letters as well as copies of the correspondence of Władysław Leon Antoniewicz from Krosno are kept in the biographical museum of Wincenty Pol in Lublin. In the years 1860-1862, Fr. Isakowicz collaborated with Pol in regard to rebuilding the Holy Trinity Church in Okopy near Kamieniec Podolski. These efforts were interrupted by the outbreak of the January Uprising.

In the letter dated January 11th, 1867, Fr. Isakowicz, addressing the recipient: ‘Most venerable Lord! Most Gracious Benefactor! ‘, is thanking Pol for a letter and his newest volume of poetry, The Song about Our Home (Pieśń o domu naszym), published in Lviv in 1866, and delivered to him by Edward Podoski, fiancé of Zofia, the poet’s daughter (they were married on March 2nd, 1867). While sharing his impressions after reading the piece, the clergyman described it as: ‘The most precious testament of the Father of the Nation, who passes what is most dear to his children in his legacy. […] Everything that is holy, noble and venerable, which keeps one on a path of God, the Church and the nation, is touched upon in this song’.

Concluding his letter, Fr. Isakowicz wished the blind poet – who was soon to undergo the ophthalmic surgery that took place in October 1867 in Krakow – the regaining of ‘the light of your eyes, that you would sing to your people, the Church and God even more beautifully’.

Grażyna Połuszejko