O kielichu miłości św. Jana Apostoła, czyli o nieco innej i zapomnianej tradycji świętojańskiej

The paper presents the history of one of the forms of the worship of Saint John the Apostle and Evangelist: blessing and administering wine to the congregation on the day of liturgical remembrance of that saint (27 December). Based on historical sources, particularly liturgical books, it can be said that the custom had reached Poland from German-speaking countries in the 15th century, became widespread in the 16th and 17th centuries and is also occasionally practiced nowadays. Though source documents mention evidence of the popularity of that ceremony in the past centuries, literary and paraliterary evidence is sparse. It includes the carol Mesyjasz przyszedł na świat prawdziwy from the late 16th or 17th century and a sermon by Walerian Gutowski from the collection Panegiryczne niektóre dyskursy duchowne (Cracow 1675), which are presented in more detail. In the opinion of the author of this paper, the analysis of the relatively sparse and scattered sources on blessing the wine for the celebration of Saint John the Apostle and Evangelist proves there is a need for further more extensive research on the worship and presence of that saint in the culture of former (pre-partition) Poland.