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HUGO KOŁŁĄTAJ was born on the 1st of April, 1750 in Dederkały Wielkie, Wołyń. In family home Kołłątaj obtained basic education, later on he was sent to schools in Pińczów. At that time he could observe poor conditions of Polish educational system under the reign of August III , that had signifficant impact on his later works. Although Kołłątaj was an eager student lerning languages (except Italian ) became severe difficulty to him. Filled with ambition to broaden the knowledge, after graduating from Cracow Uniwersity, eighteen-year-old doctor of philosophy went abroad to continue the studies.In 1770 Kołłątaj was present in Vienna, then travelled to Italy, Rome where gained the tittle of doctor of law and theology and finally to Neapol. Moreover in Italy he took up and evaluated arts, drawing (some of his works can admired even at present), became acquainted with astronomy, chemistry and mathematics. Those studies occured to be extremely helpful while creating developing schemes of various sciences in
Poland. |
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In 1775 Hugo Kołłątaj returned to country, subsequently took over the Cracow presbytery as well as in Mielec and Krzyżanowice, where he commenced works to improve the living standard of peasants.He worked also in Society of Elementary Books established by The Committee of
Education, initiated the reform of schools in Cracow including Cracow
Academy. The most important and valuable result of this work was elaborating the organization of entire school system in
Poland. The reform had profound impact as it arose from primary needs of the country and influenced the further works of The
Committee, what is more it started to change people’s way of thinking. It ought to be marked that at that time the condition of Polish educational system was extremely
difficult. According to Kołłątaj Jesuit Schools did not draw near but moved away their students from major and most important needs of the country: |
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| ‘They gave Poland the worst landlords and very often the most unamicable
citizens.’ King wished to express gratitude to Kołłątaj for his service and presented him with The St.Stanisław Order and the government office. The first school of Kołłątaj was Kolonia Akademicka. The school had been in crisis for many years, it was financially neglected by their inheritors- Wielopolscy, who wasted money and paid no attention to what may happen to school in the future. Even plans to liquidate the object appeared. The reasons of such critical conditions were due to the conservatism of nobility unwilling to accept the reforms of The Committee as well as lack of quallified teachers. Finally because of financial breakdown the school building was inadequate to fulfill its function. Fortunately Kołłątaj learnt about the situation of the school and decided to prevent it. Kołłątaj presented ways of improving the school’s situation supported by Jan Śniadecki. Thanks to their efforts on the 3rd of July 1784 an agreement was signed .On the base of the agreement the parish- priest of St.Jan’s church, Hugo Kołłątaj took over the financial duties. He ordered to repair the building, additionally a lot of attention was paid to the teaching level and teacher’s salary. On the strenght of The Educational Committee decision Kolonia was transformed into inter-faculty school with the obligation of supervising elementary schools in Busko, Jędzejów, Krzyżanowice, Nowe Miasto Korczyn, Pińczów. The inauguration of school year was held in the presence of Kołłątaj who arrived from Warsaw. The unussual ceremony was even described in ‘ Warsaw Newspaper ‘. |
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1786- -1794 – this are years of Kołłątaj’s political
activity. Kołłątaj played major part in establishing ‘true patriots’ party in Sejm Wielki., he formulated the main
propositions. Middle- class people issues as well as editting cities’ memorial were for Kołłątaj the matters of the strongest
interest. The cities’ memorial was presented to the King and officials of high rank in December 1789 during so called ‘ black procession ’. Hugo Kołłątaj was one of the authors of The Third May
Constitution. He strongly believed in its high value. In work ‘ O ustanowieniu i upadku Konstytucji polskiej 3 maja’ written together with Ignacy i Stanisław Potocki, Franciszek Dmochowski he defends his point of
view. The composition ends with appeal to Polish people: ‘Remain in fondness of genuine freedom, treat The Constitution as the last will of Dying Homeland (...) ‘ |
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| The last words of Kołłątaj are trully impressive, they really seem to be ‘ the last will of dying Poland’ , it’ a kind of testament and injunction left to the nation by mother- Homeland.‘ You could not save the independence but remember you can save your nationality. ’Since 1799 Kołłątaj was the parish- priest in Krzyżanowice, and at the same time the life-long heir of the village. He performed two parts the liege- lord and parish- priest. As a priest Kołłątaj wanted to established a new parish, as an owner to mantain the best relationships with people from village. After taking over, the control on parish was distributed to the deputies. They were also given rules concerning priest’s duties, services, church code, the administration of sacraments, and even the sacristian duties. In Christmas 1784 the parish set up The Brotherhood of Charity Under the Invocation of Adam and Eve and St. Izydor Oracz ( simmilar was in Pińczów ), donated by Kołłątaj and from membership fee. The main aim of The Brotherhood was giving additional food to poor people, building alms- house, granting loans in corn and money, finally supervising parish- school. Kołłątaj supplied the school with books printed by The Educational Committee. The income was taken from active management and from Krzyżanowice. Numerous improvements were introduced in Krzyżanowice (e.g.roads were repaired ) and in Leszcze. Besides Krzyżanowice Kołłątaj was life-long heir of Gartatowice, Stawiany and Chomentówek. In Pińczów he had gardens, one of them situated on St. Anna’s Hill remained till present. Kołłątaj donated money to build new church after the previous one was destroyed by the fire. The last period of life Hugo Kołłątaj spent in Księstwo Warszawskie. Kołłątaj died on the 28th of February 1812 in isolation after long- lasting,tormenting illness . | ||
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Tłumaczenie: mgr Justyna Szafraniec , Danuta Socha |