TESTIMONY OF THE FIRST PRESIDENT OF THE SUPREME COURT ABOUT THE FORGOTTEN HEALER – THE CASE OF J.T. PNIEWSKI FROM PUŁTUSK (POLAND)

In highly hierarchical societies with a materialistic focus on science, healers may be an aberration. The article contrasts the available historical and scientific data on the nineteenth Catholic prelate from Pułtusk with a lawyer's unique memories. S. Srzednicki, the First President of the Polish Supreme Court in Poland (1917–1922), described the prelate J.T. Pniewski as a person of extraordinary social sensitivity and a healer, to whom sick people who were disappointed by mainstream medicine turned en masse. There is no trace of information about healing in Pniewski's biographies. Selective memory about healers presumably makes it difficult to learn about healing. The recently identified and credible archival descriptions of healers, however, may inspire further research and critical discussion.