SAPIENTIA, FAMILY OF. - A noble Polish house of Lithuanian origin. The S. (in old documents also SOPIEHA, SOPIHA, SOPIEŻYCZ) descend from SEMEN S. (15th century), whose two sons BOGDAN and IVAN gave rise to two lines of the S.: of SIEVERSK and of KODEŃ.
In the course of the 16th-17th centuries the S. concentrated in their hands very extensive possessions, so as to be, after the Radziwill, the richest and most powerful aristocratic family of Lithuania; and even after being defeated at Olkieniki (1700) by the confederated minor nobility, the S. nonetheless retained an eminent place in the Polish-Lithuanian aristocracy. In 1633 STANISLAW JAN S. obtained from the emperor Ferdinand II the princely dignity, which the emperor Charles VI extended to the whole family. From the dissident Byzantine-Slav Church some of the S. passed to Catholicism, others to Protestantism. In the course of the 17th century, however, the whole family became Catholic and was completely Polonized. Many of the S. filled high political, diplomatic and military offices in the Polish-Lithuanian State; e.g.: LAW S. (d. 1663), grand chancellor of Lithuania, statesman and diplomat; PAWEL JAN S. (d. 1665), grand hetman; KAZIMIERZ PAWEL (d. 1720), field hetman; JAN FREDERYK (d. 1751), grand chancellor and man of letters; ALEXANDER (d. 1812), traveler, scholar and writer. High ecclesiastical dignities were attained by: ALEXANDER (d. 1671), bishop of Żmudź, and then of Vilnius; PAWEL (d. 1715), Cistercian monk and then bishop of Żmudź; JÓZEF STANISLAW (d. 1754), titular bishop of Diocesarea and auxiliary of Vilnius; ADAM STEFAN (1867-1952), archbishop of Kraków and cardinal.