Ignacy Krasicki

Ignacy Krasicki (also Ignatius Krasicki in latinized form) (1735 - 1801) was born at the San River into a family that held the noble rank of Counts of the Holy Roman Empire. Educated in a Jesuit college in Lwow (now L'viv) and then in a higher Catholic school in Warsaw (1751-1754) and he extended his studies in Rome (1759-1761).
He became best known for his Polish poems, became a church canon and traveled abroad. He received bishopric in Warmia in 1766 by Stanislaus Poniatowski, before Poniatowski resigned his office as king. Krasicki has written a large number of poems. He was a friend of Frederick II the Great and wrote the Monachomachia to amuse the king of Prussia. For this he received great reprimands, for having written for a Protestant king, and was told as a Catholic and as a Pole, he made a great blunder; he could not be the friend to the Prussian king. Krasicki wrote his Anti-Monachomachia to counter the publicity. He wrote fables and satires, distinctly original, because Polish. He was witty, sensible, kind with good will. In 1773 he blessed the new St. Hedwigs Kathedrale in Berlin, built by Frederick the Great. King Frederick the Great bestowed on him the highest awards, the Order of the White Eagle and the Order of St. Stanislaus. In 1794 Krasicki was elevated to archbishop of Gnesen in Prussia. In 1801 Krasicki died in Potsdam near Berlin.