Miles pauperculus bohaterem zwierciadeł Fabiana Birkowskiego

Abstract

The subject of the article, which makes reference to pugna spiritualis – the topos that was popular in the old literature and to speculum – the characteristic form of writing in the 16th century, is discussed on the basis of selected sermons by Fabian Birkowski (devoted to annual holidays) and his Latin orations about saints. The model of knighthood that was defined by the baroque preacher as miles pauperculus is presented through the biographies of holly monks. The mirror-like character of Birkowski’s sermons makes not only the question of referring to a determined tradition of a literary form and its creative continuation (present also in the author’s funeral orations), but making use of the metaphor of a mirror to define the relation between man and God as well. It is a mystic cognition, that is seeing through similarity. The personal model presented by the Dominican has a concrete addressee to whom the recommendation “by reading and looking in the mirror, to imitate” is directed.