Bogusz-Siestrzencewicz Stanislav (1731-1826) - Catholic metropolitan

Categories / Religion. Church/Personalia
BOGUSZ-SIESTRZENCEWICZ Stanislav (1731-1826, St. Petersburg), Metropolitan of all Catholic churches of the Russian Empire (1798), honorary member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences (1814). He studied at the universities of Koenigsberg, Frankfurt, Amsterdam and London, performing military service. In 1763, he was ordained into the priesthood and assumed the positions of abbot in Gomel and Bobruysk, and a canon and bishop in Vilno. In 1773, he was appointed Bishop of Byelorussia and headed the administration of the Catholic Church in Russia. In 1782, he was assigned to serve as Archbishop of Mogilev, from 1798 he served as president of Roman Catholic Ecclesiastical Collegium; later in the same year he settled in St. Petersburg. He appeared to be a consistent follower of the Russian government's policy regarding Catholics, strongly opposed Jesuits and dealt with internal affairs of monastic orders, which discontented the Roman Curia. In 1813-23, Bogusz-Siestrzencewicz served as president of the Free Economic Society. He composed works on the history of Western Russia, Taurida, the origin of Scythians and Slavs, and other works. In 1800, due to the intrigues of Jesuits he was expelled from the capital but returned the following year. He owned a house on Bolshaya Meshchanskaya Street. (present-day Kazanskaya Street), later giving it to the St. Petersburg Provincial Gymnasium and moving to 22 Torgovaya Street (now 22 Soyuza Pechatnikov Street) in 1822. In 1823-25, his domestic chapel was rebuilt as a church (see St. Stanislaus Roman Catholic Сhurch), where Bogusz-Siestrzencewicz was buried. He left some of his fortune for the establishment and maintenance of a school which functioned at the church.

Reference: [Шерпинский]. Краткое начертание деятельной и трудолюбивой жизни... Сестренцевича-Богуша. СПб., 1826.

A. I. Razdorsky. Bogusz-Siestrzencewicz Stanislav
Kazanskaya Street/Saint Petersburg, city
Soyuza Pechatnikov St./Saint Petersburg, city, house 22
[Шерпинский] Краткое начертание деятельной и трудолюбивой жизни... Сестренцевича-Богуша. СПб., 1826 Russian Academy of Sciences
St Stanislaus Roman Catholic Church