Norwid translation of a letter by Pius IX, the mystery of the poet’s gift to the pope and the fortress of Bomarsund

The article discusses a previously unknown first publication of Pope Pius IX’s letter to Norwid in a local weekly Tygodnik Katolicki in Grodzisk Wielkopolski near Poznań on 21 June 1861. The author proves that both the Polish translation of this Latin letter and an introductory note were written by Norwid himself. The author also identifies Norwid’s two gifts to the pope as a 1683 Austrian medal of Our Lady of Mariazell (by Paul Seel) and a French medal commemorating the siege of Sevastopol (1855, a work by Louis Desaide and Pierre Roquelay). In the final part of the article the latter is contrasted with the Latin ode written by Mickiewicz on the occasion of the capture of Bomarsund, interpreted as signs of two contrary historiosophical visions: that of Poland versus the Ottoman Empire in the defence of Christianity in 1683 and that of France allied with the Ottoman Empire against Russia during the Crimean War (1853-56).