Published : 2022-12-19

Psalters-teachers in parish schools of the Uniate (Greek Catholic) diocese of Przemyśl in the 18th and 19th centuries. Group portrait

Abstract

Psalters-teachers appeared in parish schools of the Greek Catholic diocese of Przemyśl at the beginning of its existence at the end of the 17th century. In the 18th century, the parish priests stopped employing professional teachers to teach in these schools. Large numbers of them were replaced by psalters, who (especially in rural parishes: small and poor) were the only church workers. From then on, for about 200 years, most of these people (apart from working in the church) were also involved in teaching children from the parish area. During the partitions, this practice was confirmed by the Austrian Education Act of 1805, in which it was ordered that the position of a folk teacher should be combined with the duties of an organist or psalter. The act sanctioned the previously common practice of employing psalters to teach in schools. Church authorities appointed persons with appropriate intellectual and moral qualities, as well as pedagogical skills, to the positions of psalter-teachers. These were usually members of the families of people associated with the Orthodox Church. These people (in relation to the rest of the local population) had a privileged social position because they cooperated with local priests, and were representatives of the Orthodox Church. Besides, they could read and write, which was a rare skill at the time (especially in villages). Since the psalter-teachers belonged to the group of church workers, they had to perform a number of different activities for the temple, priests and believers. All these jobs made their school work difficult. Nevertheless, it was not until the 1870s that psalter-teachers in folk schools were replaced by lay teachers.

Keywords:

Uniate (Greek Catholic), Przemyśl diocese, Uniate (Greek Catholic) parish schools in the 18th and 19th centuries, teachers of Uniate (Greek Catholic) parish schools in the 18th and 19th centuries, deacons in the Uniate (Greek Catholic) Church, Galicia



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Pelczar, R. (2022). Psalters-teachers in parish schools of the Uniate (Greek Catholic) diocese of Przemyśl in the 18th and 19th centuries. Group portrait. Biografistyka Pedagogiczna [Biographical Studies in Education], 7(1), 235–262. https://doi.org/10.36578/BP.2022.07.11

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"Biografistyka Pedagogiczna" received funding for the years 2022-2024 from the funds of the Minister of Education and Science under the programme „Rozwój Czasopism Naukowych”.

Project duration: 2023-2024.

The amount of co-financing is 65 992,00 PLN

Contract number: RCN/SP/0434/2021/1