Józef Jarzębowski

There were four distinct periods of teaching in Jarzębowski's life, the first and longest being that as a schoolmaster in Warsaw, 1925–1937. Shortly before the Second World War, he was given leave by his order to pursue full-time his researches into the leading figures of the Polish January Uprising. This produced a book on Traugutt and material for later publications. After his escape from war-torn Poland, he once again took up teaching in the 1940s at Santa Rosa in Mexico where he was assigned to a school for displaced and orphaned Polish children. The third phase was 1950–1952 when he taught boys from Polish resettlement camps outside Hereford in England. As the Polish population dispersed and became more integrated with its host country, while Poland was more firmly in the Soviet sphere of influence, the view among the Polish diaspora was that Polish culture should be maintained among its youth whether or not there might be an eventual return to their home country. With this in mind, it was resolved to establish a boys' secondary school - a girls boarding school had already been set up in Northamptonshire - to foster Polish traditions alongside a British curriculum. Jarzębowski found the recently abandoned and vacant dilapidated historic country house outside Henley that would combine his teacher's calling with his dream of a suitable setting for his historical and antiquarian interests. It was the fourth and final phase of his educational and writing career. It was also the place where he wished to be laid to rest. He achieved all those aims at least for the duration of his own life time.[10]

Fawley Court, glimpsed from the banks of the Thames

In 1953 Jarzębowski became spiritual leader of the Marian community and headmaster of the educational foundation that was Divine Mercy College. It became a religious and cultural centre for Poles in the South of England and beyond, hosting large numbers of visitors on feast days, especially at Pentecost. Although the priests formed the backbone of the College staff, they were complemented by secular women and men teachers, supported by a parents' association, the broader Friends of Fawley Court and frequent visitations from high-ranking prelates. Among the alumni of the school is the writer, broadcaster and art critic, Waldemar Januszczak.

Although Jarzębowski gradually withdrew from active participation in the college, due to health problems and to concentrate on his spiritual and historical interests, the momentum he had given to the setting continued for a further 20 years after his premature death in 1964. His successor was Fr. Andrzej Janicki, a veteran of the Warsaw Uprising, historian and Sci-Fi writer.[11] After the school closed in 1986, Fawley Court became a conference and retreat centre.

As the post-war generation of Poles disappeared, community support for the asset went into decline. The new generation of priests from the Polish province who arrived to replace the old guard were raised in communist Poland and appeared to be at sea coping with an English stately home and its management. They were seemingly unable to capitalise on the huge influx of Polish migrants to the UK after Poland's accession to the EU. Whereas the 2001 UK Census recorded 60,711 Polish-born UK residents;[12] 60,680 of these resided in Great Britain (not including Northern Ireland) - compared with 73,951 in 1991 - [13] following immigration after Poland's accession to the EU, the Office for National Statistics estimated 911,000 Polish-born residents in the UK in 2016, making Poles the largest overseas-born group.[14]

The Marian order's energies and finances were anyway being strained by a massive new sanctuary project in Poland and Jarzębowski's dream for Fawley Court fell victim to other congregational priorities. The invaluable asset was put up for sale in 2009 among lasting controversy and campaigns to save it for the community.[15][16]

Jarzębowski was also an assiduous collector, since before the war, of Polish Militaria and historical materials related to the November and January Uprisings. Fawley Court housed a Museum of national significance and was the subject of a detailed study published by the National Library of Poland.[17] The collection comprised a number of sculptures, most notably an Antonine period marble bust said to be of the juvenile Commodus, that Fr. Jarzębowski had brought back from Mexico in 1944. It had been on loan to the Ashmolean Museum (1973–1985) but after a failed attempt to sell it in 1985, it was finally sold at a Christie's auction in 2005.[18][19] Also sold in 1985 was an earlier acquisition, by a previous owner of Fawley Court, John Freeman, of a fragment from the Pergamon Altar that Freeman had placed over the entrance to the Gothic folly in the Capability Brown designed grounds. The Jarzębowski collection also contained: an armoury of the 16th–19th centuries of European, Asian and Far Eastern provenance, other militaria ranging from the last Polish uprising to World War II, French, Portuguese and Polish tapestries of the 16th-18th centuries, Italian Baroque paintings, drawings, including by Annibale Carracci, sacred art including icons, coins, medals and a notable philatelic collection. [20]

The library consisted of around 15,000 volumes from the 19th and 20th centuries, relating to history, theology and travel. There were also 450 prints of the 16th–18th centuries of Western European and Polish origin, with 7 Incunables pressed in the 15th century. Among the first editions were early piano compositions by Maria Szymanowska. Among the 250 or so manuscripts, were the autographs of poets and writers from 1815 to 1983, documents issued by Polish kings (up to the 18th-c.) and Papal bulls and letters by national heroes. There was also a significant cartographic collection.[21] The Museum and Library had been a member of the Standing Conference of Museums, Archives and Libraries in the West.[22]

New home of the "ks. Józef Jarzębowski Museum" at Licheń Stary in Poland

In 2010 the Marian Fathers opened a "Józef Jarzębowski Museum" in his honour, as part of their new pilgrim centre at the Basilica of Our Lady of Licheń in Central Poland. It contains a selection from the earlier collections of the defunct Fawley Court museum.[23]