The Piarist College in Vitebsk

Abstract

This paper is concerned with the history of the Vitebsk college of Piarist priests – the least known establishment run by this Order, and the last Piarist establishment founded before 1772. The college was located within the administrative limits of the Lithuanian Province. Due to the scarce sources, especially from the 18th century, little is known about its history. The Vitebsk college was one of the last such establishments founded by the Order. After the First Partition of Poland the college became part of Russia. Consequently, the Piarist school in Vitebsk operated outside the structures of the Commission of National Education and as such has received little interest from researchers in the field of 18th-century Polish education. This paper aims to provide an outline of the Vitebsk college’s history based on archival materials found through research in the Belarusian National Historic Archive in Minsk, the Lithuanian National Historic Archive in Vilnius and the General Archive of the Piarist Order in Rome. These sources have not been used by Polish researchers thus far. Hence, the study helps to validate and supplement existing research on this college. The funding for the establishment of the college was provided around 1753 by Vitebsk citizens Adam and Anna Świrszczewski. A year later they funded the construction of a wooden church and outbuildings. The college operated a school, which was temporarily relocated to a new foundation in Dubrowna (1785–1799), with the Vitebsk Piarists running only the parish. In 1822 the Tsarist government relocated the Vitebsk Piarists to Polock. Later, in 1830, the monastery and the school again changed location, this time to Vilnius. The Order would never return to Vitebsk.