The Original Necrology of Mathias Casimir Sarbiewski and the Cause of His Death

Abstract

In 2024, a brief description of the life of Mathias Casimir Sarbiewski of the Society of Jesus compiled by Jan Poszakowski (1684–1757) in the middle of the eighteenth century was published in volume 52 of Senoji Lietuvos literatūra [Early Lithuanian Literature]. The introductory observations regarding the published text stated that the original necrology of Sarbiewski did not survive.
The aim of this article is, firstly, to prove that the original necrology of Sarbiewski was written and is extant; secondly, to indicate its archival location; thirdly, to publish the text itself with the translation into Lithuanian, and, fourthly, to discuss some of its features.
Sarbiewski died in Warsaw on the 2 April 1640. To date, the circumstances of his death are not traceable in primary sources. The Jesuit poet held a position of preacher/predicant in the court of King Wladysław IV from 1635 to 1640 and was formally assigned to the house of the so-called professi of the Society of Jesus in Warsaw.
The year 1640 is very scarce in sources regarding the history of the Lithuanian Province of the Society of Jesus since no short catalogue of persons of the Warsaw house of professi is extant from 1639/1640. According to obligatory instructions, Sarbiewski’s death had to be mentioned in the so-called ‘Annual letters’ (Litterae annuae) or ‘History’ (Historia) of the aforementioned house of professi. To date, unfortunately, both of these sources are still lacking as well.
The necrologies of the deceased members of the Society of Jesus had to be entered in a special manuscript book kept for the purpose in each college, residence, or mission of the Society of Jesus. Unfortunately, only few such books are extant to date in the context of the Lithuanian Province of the Society of Jesus. Copies of these necrologies were obligatorily sent to the archive of Father Provincial in Vilnius. After the suppression of the Society of Jesus in 1773, the archive of Father Provincial of the Lithuanian Province disappeared or was destroyed as no longer relevant. As a result, these versions of necrologies did not survive. Additional copies of necrologies were obligatorily sent to the Archive of the House of the Superior General of the Society of Jesus in Rome (ARSI) and are now available to scholars. The necrologies from the former Lithuanian Province of the Society of Jesus are kept at the ARSI, in a special set of five volumes under shelf mark ‘Lith. 61–65’.
The necrology of Sarbiewski was entered not in the aforementioned corpus of necrologies kept at the ARSI, but in a separate volume containing the histories of the Lithuanian Province of the Society of Jesus, now under shelf mark ‘Lith. 39’ (fo. 268v). However, the original necrology of Sarbiewski appears to be very frustrating, since the text is very short and uninformative. Apart from minor details, it gives us no information of greater importance.
The circumstances of Sarbiewski’s death referred in detail by Poszakowski and especially by Langbein are only briefly mentioned: ‘[he] was consumed by occult malignity of hectic fever’. The hectic fever was already described by ancient medics and is now considered to possibly be tuberculosis. Considering both the climate changes in Eastern Europe at that time (the so-called minor glacial period) and quite harsh living conditions at the residencies of the Lithuanian Province the Society of Jesus, the diagnosis of tuberculosis is quite plausible. The text of the necrology along with its translation into Lithuanian is included at the end of the article. The newest archival findings from the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana (collection ‘Barberini Latini’) are cited as well.