Piotr Skarga was a Polish Jesuit, preacher, hagiographer, polemicist, and leading figure of the Counter-Reformation in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Due to his oratorical gifts, he has been called "the Polish Bossuet".
Background
Skarga was born on 2 February 1536, north of Grójec, in the small folwark (manor) of Powęszczyzna (also known as Skargowzczyzna or Skargowo). His family are often described as lesser landless szlachta (gentry, or nobility), but it seems likely most of his ancestors had been peasants, later townsfolk who had only recently become minor nobility. He was reared at the family estate, and lost his parents when he was young; his mother died when he was eight years old, and his father, Michał Skarga, four years later. Thereafter he was supported by his brothers, one of whom, Stanisław Skarga, was a priest
Education
Piotr started his education at a parochial school in Grójec before moving to Kraków, where in 1552 he enrolled at the Kraków Academy, precursor to Jagiellonian University. His teachers included the priests Marcin Glicjusz and Jan Leopolida. He finished his studies in 1555.
He studied theology in Italy from 1568 to 1570.
Career
He began life as a tutor to the family of Andrew Tenczynski, castellan of Cracow, and, some years later, after a visit to Vienna, took orders, and from 1563 was attached to the cathedral church of Lemberg. His oratory was so successful that he determined to become a missionary-preacher among the people, in order the better to combat the social and political evils of the day.
He preached successively at Pultusk, Jaroslaw and Plock under the powerful protection of Queen Anne Jagielonika. During a subsequent mission to Lithuania he converted numerous noble families, including the Radziwills, and held for some years the rectorship of the Jesuit Academy at Wilna, where he composed his Lives of the Saints. In 1584 he was transferred to the new Jesuit College at Cracow. He was protected by the valiant Stephen Bathory, and the first act of the pious Sigismund III. , on ascending the Polish throne, was to make Skarga his court preacher, an office he held for twenty-four years (1588-1611). With perfect fearlessness and piercing eloquence, he rebuked the sloth, the avarice, and the lawlessness of the diets which were doing their best to make government in Poland impossible. Sometimes, as for instance during the insurrection of Zebrzydowski, Skarga intervened personally in politics, and on the side of order and decency, for his loyalty to the crown was as unquestionable as his devotion to the Church. Wearied out at last, he begged to be relieved of his office of preacher, quitted the court, and resided for the last few months of his life at Cracow, where he died on the 27th of September 1612.
Membership
He entered the Society of Jesus.
