Męczennik i święta – motywy hagiograficzne w dramatach Krystyna Ostrowskiego

A martyr and a woman saint – hagiographic motifs in the plays by Krystyn OstrowskiThe article makes an attempt to examine two plays by Krystyn Ostrowski based on hagiographic motifs. Święty Wojciech męczennik [Saint Adalbert the Martyr] presents the history of the Bishop of Prague from the noble familyoftheSlavniks, beginning from his miraculous healingin his infancy and ending with his martyrdom. The text Święta Elżbieta Węgierska [Saint Elizabeth of Hungary] shows such episodes as the arrival of the juvenile Hungarian princess to the Wartburg Castle, her marriage with Ludwig, the miracle of change of bread into roses, the exile and death of the saint. Although the portraits of Wojciech and the duchessof Thuringia were built in reference to earlier hagiographic works devoted to them, and therefore, essentially, to conventionalized elements of hagiographies, Ostrowski actually creates a modern image of the saints. He has also consistently connected the structure of vita with the scheme of passio, while the miracula were only used slightly. The characters, stripped of magnificence and pathos, have been brought somewhat closer to the level of perception typical to a 19th-century reader or viewer