History and activity of the Cistercian Order in Jędrzejów

Each order has its own history of creation, and new rules or regulations are introduced. Most religious are perceived as clergy who, by joining a given congregation through their lives and activities, try to be closer to God and want to go towards it. The Cistercian Order helps by strict adherence to the rules of Saint Benedict, simplicity, poverty, work, and constant approach to Christ through asceticism, chastity, obedience, silence, community of life anddevotion to the Mother of God. Through their lives and missionary activities, they contributedto the development of education, music and architecture. In their actions, they emphasized in particular the integration and development of the human person. It should be mentioned that the motto that has accompanied and is still very important in the life of monks is: Ora et labora, which is translated as: „Pray and work”. The slogan is argumentation in terms of work and prayer is extremely important and should be kept between these prices. In addition, by fulfilling their duties, the monks helped the community that was outside the walls of the monastery. Realizing their ministry, the Cistercians met people who were „unfaithful”. By their actions in currencies with quotas, they often became the guardians of recently established knight orders, but also attempts were made to convert them. The Cistercian archiopathy in Jędrzejów in its history struggled with events that were unfavorable for development, for example: famine, Mongol invasion, Swedish deluge, partition of Poland, fires, or even the period of the Duchy of Warsaw. These circumstances caused: many people died, documents were destroyed, valuables of the abbey were robbed, the number of monks decreased, the property of monks was sold and economic development collapsed. However, the Cistercians take action every time. The aim of the paper is to present the genesis of bringing the Cistercians to Polish lands and their settlement in Jędrzejów. Moreover, when discussing the aforementioned order, one cannot ignore the historic organs and the activities they conduct. For this purpose, the author analyzes, first of all, the history and activities of the Cistercian Order in Jędrzejów