The Holy Cross Sermons are the oldest extant manuscripts of fine prose in the Polish language

Polish language

Polish is a language of the Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages, used throughout Poland and by Polish minorities in other countries...

 dating from the early 14th century. The documents are named after the place where they had originally been housed—the Holy Cross Monastery

Holy Cross Monastery

Holy Cross Monastery can refer to:* Santa Cruz Monastery, Coimbra, Portugal* Św. Krzyż Monastery, Łysa Góra, Poland* Holy Cross Monastery , USA* Holy Cross Monastery and Chapel, USA...

 in Poland

Poland

Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

's Holy Cross Mountains

Swietokrzyskie Mountains

Świętokrzyskie Mountains , are a mountain range in central Poland, in the vicinity of the city of Kielce. The mountain range consists of a number of separate ranges, the highest of which is Łysogóry . The two highest peaks are Łysica at 612 meters and Łysa Góra at 593 meters...

 (Polish: Góry Świętokrzyskie).

Description and history

The sermon

Sermon

A sermon is an oration by a prophet or member of the clergy. Sermons address a Biblical, theological, religious, or moral topic, usually expounding on a type of belief, law or behavior within both past and present contexts...

s, on the occasions of Church holy days, comprise fragments of five texts and one complete sermon (for St. Catherine's Day

St. Catherine's Day

St. Catherine's Day is on 25 November each year. It has retained its popularity throughout the centuries and is still widely celebrated in modern-day Estonia. It marks the arrival of winter and is one of the more important and popular autumn days in the Estonian folk calendar...

); written on parchment, they had been cut into thin strips and used to reinforce the binding of a 15th-century Latin

Latin

Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...

 manuscript.

In 1831 they had been taken to St. Petersburg, Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

, where they were accidentally discovered in 1890 by the renowned professor of Polish language, Aleksander Brückner

Aleksander Brückner

Aleksander Brückner was a Polish scholar of Slavic languages and literatures , philologist, lexicographer and historian of literature. He is among the most notable Slavicists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and the first to prepare complete monographs on the history of Polish language...

. They came back to Poland in 1925. During World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 the Holy Cross Sermons were taken for safekeeping to Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

. They are now preserved at the National library

National library

A national library is a library specifically established by the government of a country to serve as the preeminent repository of information for that country. Unlike public libraries, these rarely allow citizens to borrow books...

 in Warsaw

Warsaw

Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...

, Poland.

The photocopy of the Sermons may be seen on The Digital National Library Polona (electronic version of the Holy Cross Sermons).

The Holy Cross Sermons language is older than the manuscript, which is a copy of the original sermons from the end of 13th century (approximately). It is very archaic, sometimes very close to the Proto-Slavic

Proto-Slavic language

Proto-Slavic is the proto-language from which Slavic languages later emerged. It was spoken before the seventh century AD. As with most other proto-languages, no attested writings have been found; the language has been reconstructed by applying the comparative method to all the attested Slavic...

, e.g. in:

1) Hard stem declention of the pronoun *tъnъ 'this one': Nom. sg. ten, Gen. sg. togo, Dat. sg. tomu;

2) Aorist

Aorist

Aorist is a philological term originally from Indo-European studies, referring to verb forms of various languages that are not necessarily related or similar in meaning...

 and Imperfect:

- 1 sg. aor. widziech = Lat. perf. vidi (PSl. *vidĕti 'to see, to look', *vidĕχъ 'I saw, I looked (at); I have seen, I have looked (at)'),

- 3 sg. aor. postawi = Lat. perf. posuit (PSl. *postaviti 'to place', *postavi 'he/she/it placed, has placed'),

- 3 pl. aor. pośpieszychą się = Lat. perf. venerunt (PSl. *pospĕšiti 'to go, to go somewhere', *pospĕšišę 'they went, they went somewhere, they went out'),

- 3 sg. impf. biesze = Lat. impf. erat (PSl. *byti 'to be', *bĕaše 'he/she/it was'),

- 3 sg. impf. siedziesze = Lat. impf. sedebat (PSl. *sĕdĕti 'to sit', *sĕdĕaše 'he/she/it sat, was sitting').

External links

• Polish Literature in English Translation: Holy Cross Sermons