Tekla Małachowska nee Wodzicka as a Protector of the Charity Association in Cracow. A Contribution to the Biography

Abstract

The person I described in my article is Tekla Małachowska nee Wodzicka (1764–1829), daughter of Eliasz, a starost of Krakow, and Ludwika Wielopolska. Tekla was the second wife of Piotr Małachowski (1730–1799), the governor of Krakow province. After her husband’s death, she settled in Stopnice near Krakow. She came back to public life during the period of the Duchy of Warsaw. Then she moved to Krakow and rendered services to the cause of organizing the Charity Association in Krakow. In February 1817 Małachowska became the first President of the Charity Association. She was taking care of the persons under the Charity Association’s charge, organizing charitable concerts and balls where she assembled money for the Charity Association. Thanks to her personal qualities and welfare-and-social work Małachowska gained the general respect of community. Her friends were not only among the representatives of aristocratic houses but also leading intellectualists of the time, such as Jan Śniadecki, who bequeathed 12 thousands Polish zlotys for education of children in Niedźwiedź. Tekla Małachowska died on 22 December 1829, and was buried with her husband in Niedźwiedź In token of gratitude for her protection, on 11 February 1821 the Charity Association resolved to hang the portraits painted on metal of Tekla Małachowska and Stanisław Mieroszewski in the Chapel of the Poor in the Wawel Castle. These portraits, stamped in copper, were distributed later among the members of the Charity Association. After Małachowska’s death, a funeral mass for her soul was said on 16 January 1830 was. A few years later that sermon was recorded in the commemorative book/visitor’s book of the deceased benefactors of the Charity Association in Cracow.