LTReikšminiai žodžiai: Kamalduliai; Lietuvos Didžioji Kunigaikštystė (LDK; Grand Duchy of Lithuania; GDL); Lietuvos-Lenkijos provincija; Pažaislio vienuolynas; Pažaislis; Vienuoliai; Vienuolija; Vienuoliški vardai; Vienuolių vardai; Šventieji; Camaldolese; Camaldolites; Monastic names; Monastic order; Monks; Pažaislis; Pažaislis monastery; Polish-Lithuanian Province; Saints.
ENIn the Camaldolese Order, as in many religious other orders, upon entrance to the novitiate, a person customarily received a new name, which signified a new beginning in the monastic life. The monks assumed a new monastic name, and from that time on the old one was practically never used. This is the reason why we often know little about the persons under their original names. Monastic names of fathers and brothers were selected in such a way as not to create more than one father and one brother under the care of the same patron saint. Only after the monk’s death his name was given to a new novice. In the Camaldolese provinces there was usually one novitiate, where the candidates had a time to familiarise with the order’s rule and grow deeper into the community life, then to study and finally take eternal vows. The first Camaldolese novitiate in the Polish and Lithuanian lands was established in Bielany near Cracow, but later on, on the demand of the founedr of Pažaislis (Polish: Pożajście) monastery near Kaunas in Lithuania, such a novitiate was organised also at Pažaislis. In this way it was possible to enter the Camaldolese Order in the Polish-Lithuanian province through the two novitiates. Throughout the whole span of the 17th and 18th centuries in Cracow novitiate ca. the vows were taken by ca. three hundred fathers and little over one hundred brothers. At Pažaislis, between 1671 and 1799 almost one hundred fathers and over fifty brothers were professed. After looking at the names of the Camaldolites in the Polish-Lithuanian province in the 17th and 18th century, a number of points can be highlighted. There were, of course, some names wich were common to the whole Catholic Church throughout the world (names of the apostles, Evangelists, archangels etc.) and it would be difficult to see any specificity here. But there were some names characteristic of the Camaldolese community.It is obvious to say that the name was given with an individual patron saint in mind, and this makes it possible to see the popularity of the cults of different saints. There were, in the Polish-Lithuanian province, names popular in the whole Camaldolese Order of the Congregation of Monte Corona. Those included the first holy hermits, whose example was followed by St Benedict and St Romulad; thus, it was quite often that the monks were called Anthony, Macarius, Onuphrius, Paul, Simon, Abraham, Jerome, Pachomius, Hilary. Also later saints were popular among the Camaldolites, those who rejected high offices and went to live in seclusion, as Leonard, St Silvestre Gozzolini or Gniezno archbishop BL Bogumił. There were among Camaldolese names not only those of the most popular and venerated founders of the order and the rule (St Benedict, St Romuald, St Paul Giustiniani), but also their disciples (St Placidus, St Maurus, St Peter Damian, St Pietro Orseolo, St John Gualbert). A bit less popular were the names of other saint Camaldolese and Benedictine monks, also of those who initially belonged to the Benedictines but later established their own orders (St Wilhelm, St Robert, St Alberic, St Bernard). But there were also saints’ names which were characteristic of the Polish and Lithuanian lands. This group includes the most popular saints in the country: St Florian, St Wojciech (Adalbert), St Jacek (Hyacinth), St Stanisław (Stanislaus), St Wacław (Vaclav or Wenceslas) and others, whose names were given to novices. Quite popular were the names of the saints who preached St Romuald’s teachings before the foundation of the Camaldolese Order in Poland, such as St Brunon of Querfurt; highly popular were also names of the Five Martyred Polish Brothers (John, Benedict, Isaac, Mathew, Christian), and others saints associated with them (Barnaba, Andrew, Justin). This clearly evidences the local character of Camaldolites’ names in the Polish-Lithuanian province.