"The history of the Pauline convent in Włodawa with particular focus on the furnishings of the unpreserved chapel adjoining the cloister and the church of St. Louis the King". In spite of comprehensive literature, studies on the history...
more"The history of the Pauline convent in Włodawa with particular focus on the furnishings of the unpreserved chapel adjoining the cloister and the church of St. Louis the King".
In spite of comprehensive literature, studies on the history of the Pauline convent in Włodawa, and in particular on the XVIII-century-furnishings of the two, for some time coexisting, sacral buildings which were adjusted or were being adjusted to performing liturgical functions – required supplementing. The existence of a chapel adjoining the cloister is a fact that remains almost unknown to the subject’s researchers. The conducted analysis of its furnishings has confirmed: the cult of the Jasna Góra painting of Our Lady of Częstochowa was being practised in Włodawa long before the erection of the Paulo Antonio Fontana church, i.e. at least since 1711, and thereafter continuously throughout the following decades; the cult of the Five Wounds of Christ – developed at least since 1745, in particular thanks to the prayer confraternity operating by the church; the cult of the Holy Trinity – potent around 1755 (foundation of the Włodawa confraternity of the Most Holy Trinity), and possibly performed in the following decades, as well as a local cult of St. Joseph. Anticipating a publication about the Włodawa painting of Gabriel Sławiński, let us notice that all the four phenomena are reflected in the frescos and paintings’ programme in the church designed by Fontana.
In their entirety, the works on the key equipment of the Fontana church were carried out, with varying intensity, in the period of time from approx. 1753 (and most probably already since 1752, discounting the period of storing materials since 1751) until approx. 1785. In the period between 1776–1777 some services celebrated in the chapel adjoining the cloister were transferred to the new church, but the Marian practices were still centred in the chapel. The new datation of the woodcarving elements of the side altars and frescoes of the preserved church has allowed for an ascertainment that the transfer of the miraculous copy of the Our Lady of Częstochowa painting from the chapel adjoining the cloister to the Fontana church could have taken place around 1785, and certainly before 1788. In the similar period of time, also the ceremonies of the Five Wounds of Christ confraternity shifted from the chapel to the new patronal altar in the Fontana church. This does not, however, imply a demolition of the chapel as had been suspected. In the course of the disquisition, I have evoked several dates attesting to the possibility of continuous functioning of the chapel adjoining the cloister, out of which the latest is 1818.
