THE PAULINE FATHERS SEMINARY FORMER BUILDING OF A BOYS’ BOARDING SCHOOL

The Pauline Fathers were invited to Skałka in 1472. Nearly 200 years later, in 1653, they obtained a permit from the Holy See to create a school of philosophy and theology. Nowadays, the seminary is the only such establishment of the Order of St Paul in the entire world.

The current seminary building, which used to also house an all-male boarding school, was designed by Adolf Szyszko-Bohusz and was erected between 1935 and 1939. The architect was also responsible for the maintenance of the Jasna Góra Pauline monastery and the conservation of the Skałka church. Szyszko-Bohusz dared to create a stark, Modernist building that contrasts with the Gothic St Catharine Church and the Baroque Skałka church and monastery.

The building is divided into three parts: the left, eastern wing houses offices, school rooms and flats; the central part houses the staircase; and in the right, western wing there is a chapel with round windows and a recreation room.

The seminary is where the Paulines learn to pray and where their calling and their relationship with God matures and deepens. The cornerstone of the spiritual life of their community is prayer, which finds its most profound expression in the daily Eucharist and in the Liturgy of the Hours sung as a choir. Paulines are divided into Fathers, who are priests, and Brothers, who are members of the monastic community. The seminary formation for future priests lasts six years, encompassing two years of philosophy and four years of theology. The study course is preceded by a postulancy at Skałka and a novitiate at the Żarki-Leśniów sanctuary, and it is completed with perpetual vows.