Writings and the Authority of the Church Fathers in Old Polish Apocryphal Texts

The article presents relations between Old Polish biblical-apocryphal narrations to Church Fathers’ texts. There are numerous questions: which Church Fathers were known to Old Polish authors? What were specific writers’ preferences? Were the choices made by Polish authors different in this respect from the European practice? How were Fathers’ writings translated? Was there any difference in how patristic texts were used compared to other works (canon and non-canon works)? Were Old Polish authors aware that Fathers’ writings were present in texts by other Christian authors? Nonetheless, the two questions I put at the very centre of my research is: 1) what are the writings and the authority of the Church Fathers used for, and what is the purpose of referring to the Fathers; 2) what is the image of the Church Fathers and patristics that is present in the Old Polish authors’ texts.