O pochówkach serc Michała Korybuta Wiśniowieckiego i Klary Izabelli de Mailly-Lascaris Pacowej oraz o nekropoli Paców w Pożajściu
ENOn 10 November 1673, King Michal Korybut Wiśniowiecki died in Lwów. In the will written 10 days before, he had expressed his wish to be buried at the Wawel Cathedral. According to the King’s instruction, his heart was to be deposited at the Camaldolite Church near Warsaw, with which he had been associated since his early youth, and with which he strengthened ties after he had ascended the throne. Then, following in the footsteps of his predecessors, Vladislaus IV and John Casimir, he became the protector of the hermitage. The heart of Michał Korybut Wiśniowiecki was placed in a silver tin of that shape, bearing an engraved coat of arms of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth with the Korybut coat of arms of the king. The Camaldolites deposited the urn in a niche in the north wall of the first span of the chancel hewn for the purpose. It was covered with an epitaph painted on metal sheet, which the monks funded with their own resources presumably in early 1674. It is the only monument in the territory of the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth commemorating the burial site of a Polish King’s heart. In studies dedicated to the Warsaw Camaldalite Monastery there is also a piece of information that the very same niche, next to the urn with Michał Korybut Wiśniowiecki’s heart, holds the heart of his mother Gryzelda née Zamoyski (1623-72). However, it has never been placed there, while after Michał Korybut Wiśniowieckis epitaph is lifted, one can see a niche with two urns: one containing the King’s heart and the other that of Klara Izabella de Mailly-Lascaris Pac (1632-85). Married to Krzysztof Zygmunt Pac (1621-84), Grand Chancellor of Lithuania, she was a lady-inwaiting of Louise Marie and Eleonora Wiśniowiecka. Together with her husband she founded the Camaldalite Church and Convent in Pożajcie near Kowno (Lithuania), meant to serve as the family mausoleum.According to the spouses’ will, their On the Burial of the Hearts of Michał Korybut Wiśniowiecki and Klara Izaella de Mailly-Lascaris and about the Pac Mausoleum in Pożajcie corpses were deposited in 1685 in a crypt purposefully arranged in the vestibule, according to the sources, together with tins containing their hearts. The crypt of the Paces was to be of stately character, easily accessible to the people visiting the Camaldalite Church in Pożajcie. Its arrangement and the design of the tombs together with the transi figures of the deceased were commissioned from Pietro Puttini. For financial reasons, however, the heir to Klara Izabella and Krzysztof Zygmunt Pac did not fulfill those plans. The Pac Crypt was nevertheless frequented by the faithful. The custom survived after the dissolution of the Camaldalite Monastery in 1831 and after it had been taken over by Orthodox monks. The heart-shaped urn with the heart of Klara Izabella de Mailly-Lascaris is made of silver. Decorated with engraved monograms of Christ and Our Lady, the tin features a heart pierced with three arrows. This points to the type of spiritually promoted by the Order of the Visitation of Holy Mary brought to Poland by Queen Louise Marie, and who Klara Izabella de Mailly-Lascaris was also closely associated with.It is worth noticing that the entrance to the Pac Crytp in the Pożajcie church is next door to the Chapel of St Francis de Sales. The urn with the heart of Klara Izabella de Mailly-Lascaris was removed from the crypt at the Pożajcie church between 1831, when the Camaldalite Monastery was taken over by Orthodox monks, and 1860, when the crypt was bricked up. The urn was brought to Warsaw and as it came from a monastery confiscated by the Tsar, it was hidden in a niche of the Camaldalite church in Warsaw, next to the urn with the King’s heart. Starting from the 1870s it was erroneously identified as that with the heart of the King’s mother. It is quite likely that the urn with Klara Izabella’s husband’s heart was removed from Pożajcie together with that of hers. Unfortunately, its whereabouts remain unknown.
