Jesuit School in Chyrów

The foundation of the school was initiated by two Jesuit priests: academic theologian, Father Marian Ignacy Dzierżykraj-Morawski (1845–1901), alumnus of the dissolved Jesuit Collège Saint Clément in Metz, France and Henryk Jackowski (1834–1905), Polish provincial of the Jesuits.[2][3] [4] In 1883 the Jesuits purchased the country estate of Franciszek Topolnicki at Bąkowice near Chyrów, about 33 kilometres (21 mi) from Przemyśl. The school, opened in 1886. It drew on the traditions of the erstwhile Jesuit College in Polotsk that closed in 1820, and the Jesuit College in Tarnopol, closed in 1886.[5][6]

The school in Chyrów and its extensive grounds have so far not been returned to the Jesuits. For a time it served as army barracks for the Soviet Armed Forces. In August 2013, the historic stately home and outbuildings was sold in a Ukrainian government auction for 2,231,000 hryvnias (then about $275,000) to a private investor "Chyrów-rent-inwest”.[7]

As committed scholars, the Jesuits, devoted great effort and attention to the development of the academy's library. The nucleus of the collection was formed out of the collection moved from their college in Tarnopol. It was further expanded with the volumes the Jesuits managed to recover from many locations after the re-establishment of the Order in Europe, and by new purchases and donations. The collection included medieval manuscripts, incunabula, old music prints, collections of the 18th-century maps, rare scholarly and scientific works, academic and school manuals from Jesuit colleges (the oldest from the Jesuit College in Polotsk), from missions (e.g. Minsk) and from Jesuit houses before the suppression of the Society of Jesus.

The Chyrów library collection surpassed, by the number of volumes, their value and educational quality, all secondary schools libraries in the Austrian Partition of Poland and then those of all educational establishments in the Second Polish Republic after Poland had regained national independence in 1920. At the time of the Soviet invasion of Poland (1939) the Chyrów Library counted over 50,000 volumes and items of cultural heritage. In 1939 the Academy was liquidated by the Soviet authorities and its library with its collections entirely destroyed. On 24 March 2018 a fire broke out in the attics of the building. The cause was unknown.[8]

Some notable students included:

• Roman Abraham
• Witold Bełza
• Aleksander Birkenmajer
• Jan Brzechwa
• Kazimierz Rafał Chłapowski
• Adam Epler
• Mieczysław Jerzy Gamski
• Marian Garlicki
• Józef Garliński[9]
• Kamil Giżycki
• Adolf Hyła
• Kazimierz Junosza-Stępowski
• Jerzy Kirchmayer
• Kazimierz Konopka[10]
• Adam Kozłowiecki[11][12]
• Mieczysław Kuznowicz
• Eugeniusz Kwiatkowski, Prime Minister of the Second Polish Republic
• Antoni Halka-Ledóchowski,[13] one of the creators and first professors (since 1920) of the Maritime School (Państwowa Szkoła Morska) in Tczew, which is considered the 'cradle of the Polish merchant navy'.[14]
• Tadeusz Łubieński
• Juliusz Mieroszewski[15]
• Edward O'Rourke
• Zdzisław Peszkowski[16]
• Ksawery Pruszyński
• Andrzej Rostworowsk i
• Paweł Siwek
• Adam Strzelecki
• Adam Styka
• Kazimierz Tomczak
• Roman Wajda
• Kazimierz Wierzyński
• Antoni Wiwulski

The school's faculty included:

• The future blessed Father Jan Beyzym, SJ (1850–1912) who taught in Tarnopol and Chyrów for 17 years prior to leaving, at 48 in 1898, for Madagascar to begin the apostolate to the lepers.[17][18]
• Father Kazimierz Konopka, SJ, an alumnus of the school who came back to teach in Chyrów from 1910, becoming (from December 29, 1915) chaplain of the Polish Legion. From 1918, he was a professor at Zhytomyr Seminary, and then later at Lutsk Seminary. From 1920 he taught religion in Cheƚm Lubelski secondary schools and served as a hospital chaplain. He later organized a lower-secondary school (gimnazjum) in Vilnius, serving as its principal. He was the author of many publications and recipient of awards from the Polish state. For a time he was a missionary in Southern Rhodesia where the Jesuits were active. On his return to Europe, he gave talks about missions, for instance during a 1934 exhibition and diocesan convention on missionary work organized by the Young Men's Marian Sodality, (Sodalicja Mariańska Młodzieńców) in Ruda Śląska.[19] Returning to Poland, Konopka directed the Jesuit Retreat House in Lwów from 1938 until the outbreak of WWII and the Soviet occupation of the city. Imprisoned by the Soviets, he was shot in Brygidki prison on June 26, 1941, one of the many killed in the NKVD massacres of prisoners.[20]