Holy Cross Sermons
The Holy Cross Sermons (
History
Even though Aleksander Brückner claimed that the text was originally housed at the Holy Cross Monastery, this hypothesis has been criticized by some scholars. According to historian Władysław Semkowicz, the codex, already strengthened with parchment stripes, was delivered to a Benedictine monastery at Leżajsk, around 1459.
The Leżajsk monastery, however, was not the location where the sermons were written. Language analysis carried out by Polish experts proved that the text was probably written in a monastery in Miechów, which was famous for its sermons and library, and which cooperated with the Leżajsk monastery. On the other hand, if sermons were written in the 13th century, then their Miechów origins are dubious. At that time, this monastery was made of monks of Czech and German origin, who either did not speak Polish, or spoke it poorly, and who were unable to write down the complicated text.
Some time in the 15th century, the sermons were cut into strips, which were used to strengthen the binding of a Latin language codex. Most likely, other parts of the sermons were used in bindings of other books. This practice was common at the time, as parchment was both durable and expensive, so publications regarded as unnecessary or unimportant were frequently used to strengthen other, more precious books.
They were brought back to Poland in 1925. During World War II, the Holy Cross Sermons were taken to Canada for safekeeping. They are now preserved at the
Description
The
Linguistically, the Holy Cross Sermons reflect an older stage of the language than the 14th century, the manuscript being a copy of original sermons composed some time from the end of the 13th century. They manifest a variety of linguistic archaisms, for instance:
1) Hard-stem declension of the pronoun *tъnъ 'this one': Nom. sg. ten, Gen. sg. togo, Dat. sg. tomu;
- 1 sg. aor. widziech (cf. Lat. perf. vidi) < PSl. *viděti 'to see, to look', *viděxъ 'I saw, I looked (at); I have seen, I have looked (at)';
- 3 sg. aor. postawi (cf. Lat. perf. posuit) < PSl. *postaviti 'to place', *postavi 'he/she/it placed, has placed';
- 3 pl. aor. pośpieszychą się (cf. Lat. perf. venerunt) < PSl. *pospěšiti 'to go, to go somewhere', *pospěšixǫ 'they went, they went somewhere, they went out';
- 3 sg. impf. biesze (cf. Lat. impf. erat) < PSl. *byti 'to be', *běaše 'he/she/it was';
- 3 sg. impf. siedziesze (cf. Lat. impf. sedebat) < PSl. *sěděti 'to sit', *sěděaše 'he/she/it sat, was sitting'.
Contents
The strips contain a whole sermon for
- Michaelmas (September 29),
- Saint Nicholas Day (December 6),
- Christmas (December 24),
- Epiphany (called in Poland Three Kings’ Day, January 6),
- Feast of the Purification of the Virgin(February 2).