Piotr Skarga

Who was Piotr Skarga?

Piotr Skarga was a Polish Jesuit, preacher, hagiographer, polemicist, and leading figure of the Counter-Reformation in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Due to his oratorical gifts, he was called "the Polish Bossuet".

Skarga is remembered by Poles as a vigorous early advocate of reforms to the Polish-Lithuanian polity, and as a critic of the Commonwealth's governing classes. He advocated strengthening the monarch's power at the expense of parliament and of the nobility. He was also a prolific writer, and his Żywoty świętych was for several centuries one of the most popular books in the Polish language.