Stanislaus Czerniewicz

Stanislaw Czerniewicz (15 August 1728 in Kaunas – 7 July 1785) was a Lithuanian-Polish Jesuit priest. Rector of the Jesuit college of Polotsk when the Society of Jesus was suppressed (1773) he was elected vicar general for the Jesuits in Russia in 1782.

After his Jesuit training in Lithuania – philosophy (1747–50) and theology (1753–57) at Academy of Vilnius – Czerniewiecz taught grammar and poetry in the Kražiai College (1750–53) before being called to Rome where he was secretary for the Polish Assistancy of the Society of Jesus (1759–68). This is where he got familiarized with the government of the society. He returned to his country where he was made rector of the Jesuit College in Polatsk (now in Belarus) in 1770.

The brief of Clement XIV suppressing the Society (July 1773) could not be promulgated in the Jesuit houses of White Russia (Belarus), as the Czarina Catherina the II of Russia, a non-Catholic, strictly forbade it. She has no wish to see the Jesuits leaving their schools. There were at that time 201 Jesuits in the Russian Empire. The Jesuits carried on their work as before. As rector of the largest community and school, Czerniewicz was a sort of "reference authority" of the group. Perplexed as to what to do, he sought in 1775 through indirect contacts, approval from the successor of Clement XIV on the papal throne, Pius VI, who rather cryptically, gave to understand that he was not displeased with the situation. Czerniewicz started then receiving Jesuits coming from other countries of Europe (1776) and soon also received permission (1779) to open a novitiate for new recruits in Polatsk.

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