Adam Stefan Sapieha
Prince Adam Stefan Stanisław Bonifacy Józef Cardinal Sapieha (Polish pronunciation: [ˈadam ˈstɛfan saˈpjɛxa]; 14 May 1867 – 23 July 1951) was a senior-ranking Polish prelate of the Catholic Church who served as Archbishop of Kraków from 1911 to 1951. Between 1922 and 1923, he was a senator of the Second Polish Republic (Polish Rzeczpospolita). In 1946, Pope Pius XII created him a Cardinal.
Prince Adam Stefan Sapieha
24 November 1911
21 July 1951
Eugeniusz Baziak (apostolic administrator)
Cardinal-Priest of Santa Maria Nuova(church)
1 October 1893
by Jan Maurycy Pawel Puzyna de Kosielsko
17 December 1911
by Pius X
18 February 1946
by Pius XII
14 May 1867
21 July 1951 (aged 84)
Kraków, Poland
Polish
Adam Stanisław Sapieha-Kodenski
Jadwiga Klementyna Sanguszko-Lubartowicza
Crux mihi foederis arcus
Your Eminence
Kraków
Early life[edit]
Sapieha was born in 1867 in the castle of Krasiczyn, then part of the Austrian Empire. His family, originally from the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, were members of the Polish nobility. He was the youngest of the seven children of Prince Adam Stanisław Sapieha-Kodenski and Princess Jadwiga Klementyna Sanguszko-Lubartowicza, daughter of Prince Władysław Hieronim Sanguszko. His elder brother, Prince Władysław Leon Sapieha, is the great-grandfather of Queen Mathilde of the Belgians.
Education and early vocation[edit]
After graduating from gymnasium in Lwów in 1886, he enrolled in the Law Department at the University of Vienna, starting simultaneously law studies at Institut Catholique in Lille. In 1887 on the basis of his certificate from the University of Vienna Sapieha continued studies at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków. After two years he passed the examination and returned to Vienna for further studies, where he remained until 1890, obtaining the certificate of completion.
In the same year he began theological studies at the University of Innsbruck, and in 1892 signed up for the third year of the Major Roman Catholic Theological Seminary in Lviv. He was then educated at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, where he was also ordained as priest of Lviv (Lwów, Lemberg) on 1 October 1893 by Bishop Jan Puzyna de Kosielsko (later Bishop of Kraków and Cardinal). Father Sapieha was despatched first to Jazłowiec (college) to act as chaplain to the school and to the attached convent in Yazlovets in the Archdiocese of Lwów,[1] before, in October 1895, he started further studies in Rome. There he obtained a doctorate of civil and canon law at the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy. At the same time he studied diplomacy at the Pontifical Academy of Ecclesiastical Nobles.
After returning to the home country in 1897, he was designated vice-rector of the diocesan seminary in Lviv and eventually became its rector. He resigned because he was discouraged by the imposed rules of education of young priests. After a half-year trip across the United States of America, he was designated a vicar of the St. Nicholas congregation in Lviv in October 1902. In 1905 Sapieha was appointed a papal chamberlain, and sent to Rome where he was a consultant on matters concerning the Roman Catholic Church in Poland, in the annexed territories, the realization of an idea by Lviv Armenian Catholic Archbishop Józef Teodorowicz (who was the Sapieha's long-term friend)[2] to have a representative of the Roman Catholic Church in Poland at the Roman Curia.
Cardinal[edit]
In March 1945, he initiated the publication of Tygodnik Powszechny. He was created Cardinal-Priest, of the title of Santa Maria Nuova, on 18 February 1946. On 1 November 1946 he conferred priestly ordination on Karol Wojtyła in the chapel of his episcopal residence. After the Kielce pogrom he demonstrated his anti-Semitic attitudes when he reportedly stated that the Jews had brought it upon themselves but then provided aid for the affected Jews. According to witness, he and the church complained there were too many Jews in the government.[8][9]
Sapieha knew Karol Wojtyła (later John Paul II) was destined to become a priest when a young Wojtyła delivered a welcoming speech during the archbishop's visit to his school.[10] Some people consider him a mentor of Pope John Paul II.[11] In 1949, he proposed that Stefan Wyszyński, Metropolitan Archbishop of Gniezno and Warsaw since 12 November 1948, should be termed Primate of Poland.
The following year (1950), he wrote letters to the then Polish president, Boleslaw Bierut, protesting against Bierut's repression of the church. Sapieha died on 23 July 1951, and his funeral on 28 July turned into a political demonstration. He was buried in Wawel Cathedral, in the crypt under the confessional of St. Stanislas.
Portrayal[edit]
In the 2005 CBS miniseries Pope John Paul II, Archbishop Sapieha was portrayed by American actor James Cromwell.