Abstrakt: | Stefan Schiwietz (Stefan Siwiec), 1863-1941 – a
Roman Catholic priest,
Doctor of Theology, historian of the Eastern Orthodox Church, pedagogue – was
born in Miasteczko Śląskie (Georgenberg) on 23
th
August 1863. He studied theo
-
logy at the University of Wrocław for 3 years (1881-1884) under H. Laemmer,
F. Probst, A. König and M. Sdralek, among others, and then continued his theo
-
logical studies in Innsbruck (1884-1886), where he was a
pupil of J. Jungmann
and G. Bickell. The seminarist spent two years (1885-1886) in Freising in
Bavaria, where in 1886 he took his holy orders. Siwiec published his doctoral
thesis in Wrocław in 1896, so at the time when Sdralek took the chair of Church
History. The subject of the Silesian scholar’s dissertation concerned the monastic
reform of Theodore the Studite
De S. Theodoro Studita reformatore monachorum
Basilianorum.
Siwiec combined his didactic work as a religious and mathematics
teacher in
the public middle school in Racibórz with his academic studies on the
history of Eastern Orthodox Christianity, especially on monasticism. The results
of his research were published both in German and in Polish. His most significant
work is a
three-volume monograph
Das morgenländische Mönchtum
(Bd. 1:
Das
Ascetentum der drei ersten christl. Jahrhunderte und das egyptische Mönchtum
im vierten Jahrhundert
, Mainz 1904; Bd. 2:
Das Mönchtum auf Sinai und in
Palästina im 4 Jahrhundert
, Mainz 1913; Bd. 3:
Das Mönchtum in Syrien und
Mesopotamien und das Aszetentum in Persien vierten Jarhundert
, Mödling bei
Wien 1938) on the history of the beginnings and development of Oriental monas
-
ticism in Egypt, Palestine, Syria and Persia, until the 4
th
century, which up to the
present day has been cited in the world Patristic literature. Yet, Siwiec’s academic
work still remains little known, especially in the circle of historians of antiquity
and Polish patrologists. The equally little known figure of Max Sdralek, another
Silesian (coming from Woszczyce) priest and academic, Rector of University of
Wrocław, provides a
significant context with the research methodology which this
eminent scholar initiated, developed and tried to pass down to his pupils, among
whom was also Stefan Siwiec. Sdralek strictly demanded that the principle of
the priority of Church history over history of religion and psychology should be
kept. In his works a
description of socio-cultural factors and natural conditions
determining the process of development of Christianity enables to see in a
much clearer way how God’s plan has unfolded in history. The mutual dependence of
Sdralek and Siwiec, the similarities and differences in their ways of studying and
understanding Church history still remains an issue worth further exploration. |