Andrzej Jastrzębiec (died 1398), also known as Andrzej Wasilko or Andrzej Polak, was a Polish Catholic priest and diplomat, a first bishop of Seret and of

Vilnius Vilnius ( , ) is the capital of and List of cities in Lithuania#Cities, largest city in Lithuania and the List of cities in the Baltic states by population, most-populous city in the Baltic states. The city's estimated January 2025 population w ...

. He was part of the Jastrzebiec ancestral line of the szlachta (noble families) of Poland. He joined the

Franciscans The Franciscans are a group of related organizations in the Catholic Church, founded or inspired by the Italian saint Francis of Assisi. They include three independent religious orders for men (the Order of Friars Minor being the largest conte ...

and quickly rose through the ranks of the order. The first verified mention of Andrzej Jastrzębiec dates back to 1354, when he was listed among the parochs in

Mazovia Mazovia or Masovia ( ) is a historical region in mid-north-eastern Poland. It spans the North European Plain, roughly between Łódź and Białystok, with Warsaw being the largest city and Płock being the capital of the region . Throughout the ...

. After a brief time spent as a missionary in the pagan

Grand Duchy of Lithuania The Grand Duchy of Lithuania was a sovereign state in northeastern Europe that existed from the 13th century, succeeding the Kingdom of Lithuania, to the late 18th century, when the territory was suppressed during the 1795 Partitions of Poland, ...

, he moved to the royal court of

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

, where he became the confessor to Elizabeth of Poland, Queen of Hungary. From there he set off to

Moldavia Moldavia (, or ; in Romanian Cyrillic alphabet, Romanian Cyrillic: or ) is a historical region and former principality in Eastern Europe, corresponding to the territory between the Eastern Carpathians and the Dniester River. An initially in ...

, where he spent several years as a missionary. As an effect of his mission, on 31 July 1370 a new bishopric of Seret was created and the following year Andrzej became its first bishop. Already in 1372 he moved back to Poland, where he took over the diocese of Halych. Between 1376 and 1386 he served as an auxiliary bishop in the diocese of Gniezno. In 1388, king Władysław II of Poland sent Andrzej with a mission to baptise Lithuania. Following the creation of a diocese of Vilnius, Andrzej became its first bishop. He died on 14 November 1398 and was succeeded by his deputy, Jakub Plichta.

References

* * 1398 deaths Bishops of Vilnius Diplomats of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth Year of birth unknown Clan of Jastrzębiec Polish nobility 14th-century Roman Catholic bishops in Lithuania {{Poland-RC-bishop-stub

See also

References