Medal to commemorate the jubilee of 25 years of Michal Nowodworski's editorial and journalistic activities, 1888, Nuremberg; Av: Bust to left, on the arm cut-off inscribed I Ł 88, MICHAEL - NOWODWORSKI - S - T - D - CAN - VARSAV - MDCCCLXIII - LXXXVIII; Rw: The star from which the rays propagate, below PERFIDOS - COMPESCVIT / FIDELIVM - ANIMOS - EREXIT / AD - IVSTIT : ERVDIVIT - MVLTOS / CLERVS - QVEM - POTENER / IN - SCIENTIA - IVVIT - SVOS / ANTISTITES - ACADEMIASQ - / SECVTVS - HONOREM / DEFERT, below signature LAUER; Chomyn 454, 455, H-Cz. 8114, Tryka (Most Interesting Coins and Medals) 171; bronze, 50.3 mm, 49.60 g; patina, very nicely preserved. Michal Nowodworski was born in Wloclawek, Poland, in 1831. In 1845 he entered the Seminary, from where in 1851 he was sent to study at the Clerical Academy in Warsaw. He was ordained a priest in 1854 and completed his studies the following year. He was soon given the position of librarian at the Theological Academy and began lecturing at the university. In 1861 he made a scientific trip to France, Germany and Italy, while two years later he was elected a member of the Council of the Theological Academy. That same year he took over the editorship of the Religious and Moral Diary, which he renamed the Catholic Review. It was the first Catholic periodical in Poland, edited in the then-modern manner and aimed at the Catholic intelligentsia. For showing sympathy for the January Uprising and refusing to sign allegiance to the Tsar, he was deported to the Perm Governorate, where he stayed from 1863 to 1868. Upon his return to the country, he was allowed to stay only in the area of the diocese of Kalisk-Kujawy. It was not until three years later that he appeared in Warsaw, where he was active in research and publishing for the next 20 years. He regularly published authoritative works in various fields in Przegląd Katolicki, while his main work became the Encyclopedia Kościelna, of which 21 volumes were published under his editorship. For his zeal and commitment to scholarly activity, Michal Nowodworski received honorary doctorates from the St. Petersburg Theological Academy and the Jagiellonian University in 1887. In 1888, the quarter-century of his scholarly and publishing activities fell, and as a result, the shepherds of the Plock diocese presented him with a magnificent new desk along with writing instruments and the clergy commissioned a medal to commemorate the anniversary. The following year, Pope Leo XIII pre-consecrated him as Bishop of Plock, the sacrament of which he received the following year at St. Catherine's Church in St. Petersburg. Due to his duties as bishop, he continued his academic work during the night, which led to heart disease and his sudden death on June 12, 1896.
