Authoresses and useresses: 19th-century women’s prayer books in the Polish language

Abstract

The aim of this article is to describe and present 19th-century women’s prayer books — created on the initiative of women and used by women. To achieve this, the author discusses selected Polish-language manuals of practical piety (Christian and non-Christian) as well as the profiles of some authoresses of prayer texts and their collections, the places and scale of production of this type of works, and, finally, their readership. The conclusion is that this type of literature (books) obviously shaped religious consciousness but besides, it served to awaken national awareness (distinctiveness) of Polish women and men, providing them with a sense of community, and significantly contributing to the promotion of the Polish language in the partition times, as well as within the circles that were assimilating with the Polish population.