The Devil and the Afterlife in the Light of Fragments of the 13th-Century Cistercian Book of Miracles from the Library of the Cistercian Abbey in Kołbacz

This article analyses the surviving fragments of a 13th-century Cistercian book of miracles from the library of the Cistercian abbey in Kołbacz, stored in the Archives of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw. These fragments are a source unknown in scholarly circulation, but important from the perspective of the culture and spirituality of the Cistercian Order. The article will address the issue of the devil, demons, the hereafter and the theme of the monks' struggle with demons. It will also try to indicate whether the visions of evil and supernatural forces contained in the surviving fragments fit into a broader context, consistent with Cistercian interpretation.