Sources for building the memory of historical events: oral history and its contexts in the Chronicle of the Order of Poor Clares in Stary Sącz from 1914–1918

Abstract

The primary sources for the construction of a memory of historical events in a cloistered community in the light of monastic chronicles are: official information, confirmed media (press) releases, oral testimony of third-party witnesses to events, and oral testimony generated by the monastic community. These sources are subject to verification and valorisation as to their reliability within the chronicle text itself. The multifaceted nature of the accounts and their mutual corroboration (or exclusion) allow the construction of an account of an objectified collective witness to history.