Slovenski knazi v krakovskej arcidiceze v rokach 1921-1939

Abstract

The delimitation of the Polish-Czechoslovakian border on July 28th 1920, carried out under the provisions of the decision of the Conference of Ambassadors, resulted in the inclusion of the nine parishes of the Nedeca deanery, which formerly had been a part of the Spis diocese in Slovakia, into the Second Polish Republic. In Poland, the deanery was renamed as the Spisz deanery. However, despite the revision of the political border between Poland and Czechoslovakia, until February 10th 1925 – when the concordat between the Holy See and the Second Polish Republic was signed, following which, on October 28th of the same year the Vixdum Poloniae Unitas bull was issued by Pius XI – the Slovak priests still remained within the jurisdiction of Jan Vojtasak, the bishop of the Spis diocese. The formal inclusion of the Spisz deanery to the Cracow archidiocese had been effected on the basis of the provisions of the bull. In consequence of the inclusion, the jurisdiction over the Spisz deanery was transferred to the Archbishop of Cracow, Adam S. Sapieha. The change notwithstanding, eleven Slovak priests remained in their parishes where the shift of the political borders found them. Six of them continued working there until the end of their lives, while four remained in the now Polish territory until their repatriation to Slovakia. In 1928, the eleventh priest, Frantiˇsek Urvay, was reassigned to the parish of Bukowina-Podszkle in the region of Orawa. The parishes, either orphaned by or vacated by the Slovak priests, would be assigned new parish-priests, whom Adam S. Sapieha would recruit from among the Polish clergy. In August 1939, the Spisz deanery would only have one Slovak clergyman, a Trybsz-born priest, Frantisek Mos.