The Sword of St. Peter from the Poznań Cathedral. The Fate of the Relic

The article provides and overview of the „written history” of the sword of St. Peter which has been in the collections of the Archdiocesan Museum in Poznañ for over twenty-five years. Although scholarly studies are mentioned for the sake of reference, the main focus is on the fate of the relic as recorded in documentary evidence in the form of entries in chronicles, decrees and inventory books which indubitably testify to the existence of the sword of St. Peter. Thanks to those records it was possible to retrace the continuity of the relic from the moment of its arrival to the Piast state up to the present day.The article provides and overview of the „written history” of the sword of St. Peter which has been in the collections of the Archdiocesan Museum in Poznañ for over twenty-five years. Although scholarly studies are mentioned for the sake of reference, the main focus is on the fate of the relic as recorded in documentary evidence in the form of entries in chronicles, decrees and inventory books which indubitably testify to the existence of the sword of St. Peter. Thanks to those records it was possible to retrace the continuity of the relic from the moment of its arrival to the Piast state up to the present day