200px, Nałęcz coat of arms used by Piotr Parczewski Piotr Parczewski ( be, Пётр Парчэўскі, translit=Petar Parcheўskі, lt, Petras Parčevskis; 1590 – 6 December 1658) was Roman Catholic Bishop of Smolensk in 1636 and

Bishop of Samogitia Bishops of Samogitia, Samogitian diocese (now a part of Lithuania) from 1417 to 1926. The seat of the diocese was in Varniai/Medininkai until 1864, when it was moved to Kaunas. It was liquidated in 1926 by Pope Pius XI when the archdiocese of Ka ...

(now

Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Kaunas The Archdiocese of Kaunas ( la, Archidioecesis Kaunensis) is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or archdiocese of the Catholic Church in Lithuania. The episcopal see is in Kaunas, the second-largest city in Lithuania. The archdiocese's moth ...

) since 9 December 1649, royal secretary and a Catholic convert from Orthodoxy.

Biography

Parczewski was born in an Orthodox family. After the adoption of Catholicism, he entered in the seminary of

Vilnius Vilnius ( , ; see also other names) is the capital and largest city of Lithuania, with a population of 592,389 (according to the state register) or 625,107 (according to the municipality of Vilnius). The population of Vilnius's functional urb ...

and was later sent to the Papal Seminary in

Braniewo Braniewo () (german: Braunsberg in Ostpreußen, la, Brunsberga, Old Prussian: ''Brus'', lt, Prūsa), is a town in northern Poland, in Warmia, in the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, with a population of 16,907 as of June 2021. It is the capital of ...

. He continued his studies at the

Vilnius University Vilnius University ( lt, Vilniaus universitetas) is a public research university, oldest in the Baltic states and in Northern Europe outside the United Kingdom (or 6th overall following foundations of Oxford, Cambridge, St. Andrews, Glasgow and ...

where he received the master's degree in philosophy in 1622. Later, Parczewski earned a doctorate in theology and was ordained to the priesthood in 1628, became rector in

Starodub Starodub ( rus, links=no, Староду́б, p=stərɐˈdup, ''old oak'') is a town in Bryansk Oblast, Russia, on the Babinets River (the Dnieper basin), southwest of Bryansk. Population: 16,000 (1975). History Starodub has been known ...

. In 1630, became the administrator of the Diocese of Smolensk. During the

Smolensk War The Smolensk War (1632–1634) was a conflict fought between the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and Russia. Hostilities began in October 1632 when Russian forces tried to capture the city of Smolensk. Small military engagements produced mix ...

in 1632–1634, he remained besieged in Smolensk. In 1635, King Wladyslaw IV Vasa appointed him as the first bishop of Smolensk, and then Parczewski went to Rome to obtain the approval of the new diocese, which was received on September 1, 1636. On September 7 of the same year, he was ordained a bishop by Cardinal Giovanni Battista Pamphili (future

Pope Innocent X Pope Innocent X ( la, Innocentius X; it, Innocenzo X; 6 May 1574 – 7 January 1655), born Giovanni Battista Pamphilj (or Pamphili), was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 15 September 1644 to his death in January ...

). At the end of 1649, Parczewski became bishop of Samogitia. In 1651, carried out a visitation of the diocese. During the

Swedish Deluge The Deluge ( pl, potop szwedzki, lt, švedų tvanas) was a series of mid-17th-century military campaigns in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. In a wider sense it applies to the period between the Khmelnytsky Uprising of 1648 and the Truce ...

, on 18 August 1655, he signed the

Treaty of Kėdainiai The Treaty of Kėdainiai or Kiejdany, signed on 17 August 1655, was a Swedish– Lithuanian agreement during the Second Northern War. After the Polish forces had been decisively defeated in the Battle of Ujście in which the Poznań and Kalisz ...

, an instrument of surrender to

Charles X Gustav of Sweden Charles X Gustav, also Carl Gustav ( sv, Karl X Gustav; 8 November 1622 – 13 February 1660), was King of Sweden from 1654 until his death. He was the son of John Casimir, Count Palatine of Zweibrücken-Kleeburg and Catherine of Sweden. Afte ...

. On October 20 of that year, he signed the

Union of Kėdainiai The Union of Kėdainiai (or Agreement of Kėdainiai, Lithuanian: ''Kėdainių unija'', Polish: ''Umowa Kiejdańska'') was an agreement between several magnate The magnate term, from the late Latin ''magnas'', a great man, itself from Latin ...

which established the Swedish–Lithuanian union. Parczewski died on 6 December 1658.

Sources

* Henry Lulewicz, Peter Parczewski, in Polish Biographical Dictionary, Volume XXV, 1980, pp. 210–212. * Hierarchy medii Catholica et recentioris Aevi, Volume IV, Monasteri 1935, p 318 (

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

). * Hierarchy of Catholica medii et recentioris Aevi, Volume IV, Monasteri 1935, p 304.

External links

Catholic-hierarchy.org
{{authority control 1590 births 1658 deaths Converts to Roman Catholicism from Eastern Orthodoxy Former Polish Orthodox Christians 17th-century Roman Catholic bishops in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth Bishops of Smolensk Ecclesiastical senators of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth 17th-century Polish nobility Clan of Nałęcz Vilnius University alumni