Historia skarbca katedry wileńskiej (od założenia do dzisiaj)

ENVilnius Cathedral Treasury dates from 1387 when the diocese of Vilnius was established. Historical sources say that the Treasury housed royal donations, episcopal and chapter donations and bequests, gifts of the magnates and members of nobility, liturgical vessels and relics given by popes as well as liturgical plate from other churches. The first objects in the Treasury were donated by the rulers of the newly-christianized Lithuania: Ladislas Jagiełło, King of Poland and Witold, Grand Duke of Lithuania and their wives. Moreover, the first Treasury housed ecclesiastical plate brought by Andrew, the first Bishop of Vilnius who was a Polish Franciscan and a former Bishop of Seret in Bukovina. Whatever survived of the original Treasury during the two hundred years, was recorded in the inventory of 1598. These were precious liturgical vestments with coats of arms of Poland and Lithuania: the White Eagle, the White Knight and the Columns of Gediminas. Unfortunately, none of these has survived to the present day. The royal family paid special attention to the Royal Chapel (later called the Chapel of St Casimir) erected by Casimir Jagiellon in the cathedral in 1484. The founder furnished the chapel with precious liturgical plate decorated with the coat of arms of the Polish Kingdom.The sixteenth century marked a major growth of the Treasury. Upon the request of Alexander Jagiellon in 1501, Pope Alexander VI donated numerous relics to the King who then must have commissioned several reliquaries for the relics. On 250 anniversary of the canonization of St Stanislas, patron saint of the cathedral, holy relic of the saint appeared in the Treasury. It was most probably around that time that the Treasury received the relic of St Stanislas’ arm and a reliquary most probably commissioned by Alexander Jagiellon. The magnificent reliquary survives until the present day. Around the same time, Queen Mother, Elisabeth Habsburg, gave a silver gilt image of the saint. A 1598 inventory lists numerous items donated to the cathedral by members of the Habsburg dynasty - the wives of Casimir Jagiellon, Sigismund Augustus, kings from the Vasa dynasty, and Queen Bona Sforza, wife of Sigismund the Old. Ornamental ecclesiastical vestments were donated to the cathedral by Sigismund the Old and Sigismund Augustus. Members of the Vasa dynasty enlarged Cathedral Treasury. Most importantly, they founded and furnished the Royal Chapel (St Casimir Chapel). Its construction started during the reign of Sigismund III Vasa in 1624 and finished in 1636 during the reign of his son, King Władysław IV. Subsequent rulers paid less attention to the needs of the cathedral.Andrew, the first Bishop of Vilnius, made a gift by will to the cathedral of all his liturgical vessels. The same document mentions a few other donations made by Ann, Grand Duchess of Lithuania and wife of Duke Witold. Other bishops followed in the footsteps of bishop Andrew, for example, bishop Paweł Olszański, Walerian Protasewicz, Jerzy Radziwiłł, Benedykt Woyna, Eustachy Wollowicz, Abraham Woyna, Jerzy Tyszkiewicz. Members of the cathedral chapter were among the donors, too, for example: Jan Albin, Paweł Wiszeński, Bartłomiej from Kovno, Stanisław Wilczopolski, Marcin Szulc Wolfowicz and Mikołaj Jasieński, as well as the ecclesiastical hierarchs from the neighbouring dioceses: Jan Filipowicz, Bishop of Kiev and Jan Domanowski, Bishop of Samogitia. Some of these donations have survived until the present day. First accounts of the donations of the chalices from the episcopal inauguration mass date from the first half of the sixteenth century. [...].