MARIAVITI. A pseudo-mystical sect founded in 1906 in Poland by the excommunicated priest Jan Kowalski and the visionary Felicia Kozlowska (1862-1922). Received into the Union of Utrecht, by which their doctrine of faith is influenced, based on Quietism and moreover identical with that of "Old Catholicism," the M. profess a special cult of the Most Holy Mary, whence the name (Mariae vitam unitari), and further practice a particular devotion to the Eucharist. Only recently have they rejected the sacrament of Penance.

Numbering about 200,000 in 1911, they were reduced to less than half that number in 1925, after the rupture of relations with them on the part of the Old Catholic Episcopal Conference, following their excesses of fanaticism toward the two founders and the introduction of the so-called "mystical marriages" between Mariavite priests and nuns. At present they number a little more than 50,000, with an archbishop, three bishops, thirty priests and five hundred nuns. The M. live according to the Franciscan Rule, the priests observing the first, the nuns the second, and the simple faithful the third.

Bibliography6 works

BIBL.: K. Gajowski, Die Mariaviten, Cracovia 1911; M. Skrudlik, Zbrodnie Mariavitoto w. svietle dokumentow, Varsavia 1927-38; M. Niwinski, Les mariavites de Pologne, in Revue apologétique, 54 (1932), pp. 570-80. Cf. inoltre le varie Correspondenze dalla Russia, in Civ. Catt., 1909, I. p. 363 seg.; III. p. 749 sg.; IV. pp. 732-38; 1911, I. pp. 731-36.

Niccolò Del Re

@incollection{ec8_mariaviti, author = {Del, Re Niccolò}, title = {Mariaviti}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {VIII}, pages = {154}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1952}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/mariaviti} }

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