Jan Gruszczyński

Jan Gruszczyński or John was a medieval Bishop of Kraków, Kujawski, Archbishop of Gniezno, Chancellor of the Crown and active diplomat.

He was born at Sieradz, Central Poland in 1405AD into the Poraj Polish Noble family. He was the son of a military officer John Sieradzki of Gruszczyce and his wife Margaret of Naramowice.

He studied at the Jagiellonian University from 1431 to 1440, while working in the office of the king. In 1440 he travelled with King Władysław III of Varna to Hungary and then two years later took up in the rectory in his home town of Sieradz. He also worked in the office of Casimir the great being one of the co-authors of Casmir’s centralizing policy.

In 1450 he was appointed Bishop of Kujawski and was consecrated on 12 January 1451 in the church of the Holy Cross in Circle His politics saw him engage with the Prussians and he was politically active in the thirteen year war. In 1463 became bishop of Krakow and archbishop of Gniezno from 1463 – 1472.

In 1463 and 1466 he led diplomatic delegations to the Teutonic Knights in Brest Kujawski, and Torun.

Although he took ill in 1469 he managed a number of other missions but he died suddenly in Krakow on 8th or 9 October 1473 and was buried in Gniezno Cathedral, where his successor John devoted a magnificent tombstone of red marble. This now rests in a church founded by the Gruszczyńskich family in their estates near Iwanowice, Southern Poland.