The family circle of Fr. Andrzej Chyliński (1799–1862), Męka parish priest in the Sieradz deanery

Abstract

After his studies at the seminary in Włocławek, Andrzej Chyliński, born in 1799, was ordained a priest in 1823. He was initially a vicar in Mstów, then an administrator in Przystajń, Wilkowiecko, Mierzyn, and Wola Grzymalina. In the years 1833–1843, he served in Wąsosz, and in the years 1843 to 1862 – that is until his death – he was an administrator and parish priest in Męka in the Kujawsko-Kaliska diocese. He was born in a family of craftspeople and came from a small private town of Lubraniec near Włocławek. After his father’s death, Andrzej Chyliński’s family, who he undoubtedly supported, lived in the priest’s pastoral institutions. The clergyman’s position influenced the marriages of his sisters. A certain accumulation of capital, which was possible thanks to the brother’s work, was perhaps useful for the dowry. The priest’s brothers-in-law were the son of a clerk – probably an impoverished nobleman – and the son of townspeople from Kielce. The social circle of the priest’s relatives consisted of representatives of the local nobility, intelligentsia, low-level officials, skilled workmen, as well as local peasants. In order to match the yeomanry environment, the clergyman tried to raise the social status of his loved ones in various acts and deeds by calling them “born”. The desire to establish the current position and to obliterate the petty-bourgeoisie origin should be associated with interference in the content of the metric records of the priest’s siblings, in which bourgeois qualifiers such as “honest” and “notorious” were removed and replaced by the term “Sir”.