14 Facts About Tadeusz Brzozowski

Tadeusz Brzozowski, SJ was a Polish scholar, teacher, administrator and a Jesuit priest.

Tadeusz Brzozowski entered the Society of Jesus in 1765, and studied Rhetoric, Greek, French and classical literature in Slutsk, followed by Philosophy and Mathematics in Nieswiez.

In 1782 Tadeusz Brzozowski left for Polotsk, Belarus in the Russian Empire, in order to be able to rejoin the Society, which was allowed to continue there.

Tadeusz Brzozowski had an especial devotion to the Jesuit martyr, Andrew Bobola and in 1808 he exhumed his remains from Pinsk and brought them for reburial in Polotsk.

Tadeusz Brzozowski expanded missionary activity in Mozdok, in the Caucasus, Irkutsk and in Tomsk.

In October 1806, the "ex-Jesuits" of Maryland in America were fully incorporated into the Society and Tadeusz Brzozowski allowed an American novitiate to be opened with ten novices at Georgetown.

Later that year, Bishop Joseph-Octave Plessis of Quebec wrote to exiled Pope Pius VII and to Tadeusz Brzozowski, begging for Jesuits to be sent from Great Britain both to Halifax Nova Scotia and to work among the aboriginal people in Upper Canada.

Tadeusz Brzozowski sent four men as requested, two from Russia and two from England, but the Napoleonic Wars in Europe and the dangers of travel made their mission impossible.

Tadeusz Brzozowski worked tirelessly to obtain the general restoration of the Society, both personally and through his delegate in Rome, Father Luigi Fortis SJ.

The newly reconstituted Society of Jesus deemed a general congregation unnecessary: Tadeusz Brzozowski retained his role and became formally Superior General of the Society of Jesus.

Tadeusz Brzozowski therefore appointed Luigi Fortis, as his representative in Rome from 1814 until his death in 1820.

Tadeusz Brzozowski had managed to secure the continuity of the Society from his exile in Russia.

Tadeusz Brzozowski died on February 5,1820, and was buried in Polotsk.

Tadeusz Brzozowski had taken the precaution to nominate an Italian, Mariano Petrucci, as his Vicar General, to ensure that the Congregation to elect his successor would meet in Rome.