The Meditative Character of the Mikołaj Mieleszko’s Nabożne westchnienia (Pious Sighs)

The article points to a relationship between Mikołaj Mieleszko’s Nabożne westchnienia and meditations, and shows the meditative character of the baroque emblematic works. It also presents the division of the work into three books introduced by Mieleszko, which can be referred to the model of a three-stage mystical way to God (via purgativa, via illuminativa, via unitiva), used by St. Ignatius of Loyola (but knowing by Pseudo-Dionysius The Areopagite and fully expressed by St. Bonaventure). Moreover, it discusses the participation of human faculties in the emblems: memory, intellect, will, imagination, and feelings, which are so important for the act of meditation. Above all, emphasis is put on the goal of the reflections presented by Mieleszko in the subscriptio; they were supposed to touch the soul and convince one to a spiritual transformation. They were, therefore, just like meditations, a way of achieving inner growth