CZERSKI, JOHANN. - Apostate Catholic priest, born at Warlubien (West Prussia) on 12 May 1813, died at Schneidemühl on 22 December 1893. He studied at Poznań, where he was ordained priest in 1842 and served as cathedral chaplain for a year and a half. In 1844 he was transferred as assistant priest to Schneidemühl. Already suspended twice for concubinage, on 22 August 1844 he publicly declared his apostasy from the “Roman court Church,” and, followed by a small band of adherents, founded in Schneidemühl on 19 October 1844 the “Christlich-apostolisch-katholische Gemeinde.”
The doctrine of the new sect was set out in nine articles in a letter addressed to the government to obtain its public recognition: it rejected as human institutions Communion under one kind, the canonization of saints and blessings, the priestly power to forgive sins, indulgences, the precept of fasting and abstinence, the use of Latin in the liturgy, and the primacy of the Roman Pontiff. It accepted instead the profession of the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Symbol, the doctrine of the seven Sacraments and of the Mass, transubstantiation through faith, and prayer for the dead. The new community held its meetings and services in a private house under Czerski’s direction; in the meantime he had announced his marriage and published two heretical writings (*Rechtfertigung meines Abfalls von der römischen Hofkirche*, Bromberg 1845; and *Offenes Glaubensbekenntnis der Christl.-apost.-kath. Gemeinde*, Stuttgart 1844). On 17 February 1845 the vicar capitular of the archdiocese of Poznań, Gajerowicz, therefore proceeded to degrade him and excommunicate him. On 21 February Czerski was solemnly married before the Protestant pastor of Schneidemühl.
At the very time when this sect was springing up in Silesia, various other dissident groups were appearing, which increasingly regarded G. Ronge of Breslau as their leader. Although Czerski’s religious outlook was far more positive and believing than Ronge’s rationalist-liberal stance, the two movements merged in 1845 into the sect of the German Catholics. For a time the contrast between the two tendencies remained alive even within the sect, but Czerski’s influence steadily declined. He in fact drew ever closer to Ronge’s rationalism. In 1863 he joined him again in founding the *Religiöser Reformverein*, a short-lived institution now completely imbued with free thought and opposition to all positive Christianity. At the time of his death Czerski had long since been forgotten.
CZESTOCHOWA, Diocese of — The Black Madonna — painted on three limewood panels: studies undertaken on the occasion of the restoration of 1925–26 seem to attribute it to an unknown Italian (early 14th century). The icon has been photographed without its silver revetment.
Czestochowa, diocesi di — P. Frutaj (per courtesy of mons. A. P. Frutaj)
Czestochowa, diocesi di — The “Black Madonna” painted on three limewood panels: studies undertaken on the occasion of the restoration of 1925–26 seem to attribute it to an unknown Italian (early 14th c.). The icon has been photographed without its silver revetment.
