Franciszek von Tessen-Węsierski (1869–1947) i jego tomistyczna teorii cudu

Francis von Tessen-Węsierski was born on 22nd December in 1869. He came from the old noble Kashubian family who settled in the Eastern Pomerania (mainly in the area of Słupsk), in the Front Pomerania and in Ruggia. Fran­cis’ father, Joseph, studied in Berlin whe­re he later took up. In Berlin Francis completed his Matura (23rd March 1890) and after that he studied at the Theolo­gical Faculty of the University of Wro­cław. He finished his Bachelor’s degree in 1894 and at the same year was orda­ined a priest. In the next year he earned a Habilitation and became a so called private docent (Privatdozent). Initially he taught the history of the Church and philosophy and also apologetics since 1897. In 1899 he was nominated an as­sistant professor of apologetics, next, in 1900 he was appointed a lecturer in pro­pedeutics of philosophy and apologetics; on 15 March the same year he obtained a Doctorate for the entirety of the aca­demic work. In the same year he was of­fered to take the chair of the Dogmatics at the Theological Faculty of the Jagiello­nian University. However, the prince­-bishop, cardinal Jan Puzyna denied a ca­nonical mission to Tessen- Węsierski on the basis of the insufficient knowledge of the Polish language by the candidate. Thus von Tessen-Węsierski stayed at the Theological Faculty of the University of Wrocław as an assistant professor, a lec­turer of apologetics and propedeutics of philosophy. In 1933 when Adolf Hitler gained the power in Germany von Tes­sen-Węsierski was dismissed from the faculty for the lack of his “racial purity”. As a pensioner he lived in Szczecin. Nothing is known about his life during the war, nevertheless, it was noted that when the city was incorporated to Po­land he was the first priest of Polish ori­gin who stayed in Szczecin, and he died there on 7th January 1947