Andrzej Jastrzębiec, also known as Andrzej Wasilko or Andrzej Polak (died 1398) was a Polish Catholic priest and diplomat, a first bishop of Seret and of Vilnius. Little is known of his youth and he might have been born to a peasant family. He joined the Franciscans and quickly rose through the ranks of the order.

Fresco displaying Andrzej during the Christianization of Lithuania

The first verified mention of Andrzej Jastrzębiec dates back to 1354, when he was listed among the parochs in Mazovia. After a brief time spent as a missionary in pagan Lithuania, he moved to the royal court of Hungary, where he became the confessor to Queen Elisabeth of Poland and Hungary. From there he set off to Moldavia, where he spent several years as a missionary. As an effect of his mission, on July 31, 1370, a new bishopric of Seret was created and the following year Andrzej became its first bishop.

Already in 1372 he moved back to Poland, where he took over the diocese of Halicz. Between 1376 and 1386 he served as an auxiliary bishop in the diocese of Gniezno. In 1388, king Władysław II of Poland sent Andrzej with a mission to baptise Lithuania. Following the creation of a diocese of Vilnius, Andrzej became its first bishop. He died November 14, 1398 and was superseded by his deputy, Jakub Plichta.

[edit] References

• (Polish) Zygmunt Gloger (1900). Geografia historyczna ziem dawnej Polski. Kraków: Spółka Wydawnicza Polska. ISBN 83-214-0883-4. http://monika.univ.gda.pl/~literat/glogre/. 
• (Polish) Piotr Nitecki (2000). Biskupi Kościoła w Polsce w latach 965-1999: Słownik Biograficzny. Warsaw: Pax. 

[edit] See also

• Wojciech Jastrzębiec

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