Unexpectedly, on 8 April 2021, we received the sad news of the death of Dr Stanisław Dziedzic, historian of literature, columnist, apostle for culture, and a tireless servant of Kraków for many years in his roles as director of Kraków City Council’s Department for National Culture and Heritage (from 2004) and, later, as director of Kraków Libraries (from 2017). He was a journalist, university teacher and prolific author who engaged wholeheartedly in academic life. One of the major themes of his writings was the culture of the Eastern Borderlands of Old Poland. Indeed, it was the subject of his final collection of literary and historical essays, which he was working on immediately before his death. The title he gave it is a poignant one: Kresy wciąż bliskie [Borderlands still close]. The stories he intended to tell in it were of the high school in Krzemieniec, the Madonnas of Lwów, the Armenian and Polish world of the old cathedral in Lwów, the Carmelite monastery in Berdyczów, the Dominican sanctuary in Podkamień, Archbishop Józef Bilczewski and the architect Jan Sas-Zubrzycki.

The Polish Armenians were a passion of Stanisław Dziedzic’s academic research and popular writing alike. He lent his support to events held by the Armenian Cultural Association and organised an exhibition and academic conference devoted to the contribution the Polish Armenians made to Polish independence (9-10 November, 2018). Of his remarkable output of some 1,200 publications, he devoted the following to their history:

Czas próby i nadziei. O zabiegach unijnych w Kościele ormiańskim na ziemiach Rzeczypospolitej [A time of hope and trial: attempts at unification in the Armenian Church on the lands of the Polish Republic], in: Unia brzeska, geneza, dzieje i konsekwencje w kulturze narodów słowiańskich [The Union of Brest: origins, history and consequences in the culture of slavic nations], R. Łużny, F. Ziejka, A. Kępiński eds., Kraków 1994;

Tendencje unijne Ormian polskich [Unification tendencies of the Polish Armenians], in: Materiały z konferencji naukowej „Kijów- Brześć – Rzym. Tendencje unijne i ich kulturowo-religijne konsekwencje przed i po 1596 roku” [Material from the academic conference ‘Kiev-Brest-Rome: unification tendencies and their religious and cultural consequences before and after 1596’], „Krakowskie Zeszyty Ukrainoznawcze”, 1997;

Czas próby i determinacji. O utrwalaniu unii polskiego Kościoła ormiańskiego ze Stolicą Apostolską [A time of trials and resolution: on the consolidation of the union of the Polish Armenian Church with the Holy See] in: Lwów: miasto – społeczeństwo – kultura, [Lwów: city – society – culture], 2, Kraków 1998;

Karol Bołoz Antoniewicz, in: Historia literatury polskiej w dziesięciu tomach, [History of Polish literature in ten volumes], 5/2, Romantyzm [Romanticism], A. Skoczek ed., Bochnia–Kraków–Warszawa 2006;

Arcybiskup Józef Teodorowicz a sprawa niepodległości Polski [Archbishop Józef Teodorowicz and the question of Polish independence], in: Polscy Ormianie w drodze do niepodległej Polski [Polish Armenians and the path to an indpendent Poland], S. Dziedzic, J. Paluch eds., Kraków 2018;

Józef Teodorowicz: “Katedrę tę dźwigałem”. Ormiański i polski świat starodawnej lwowskiej świątyni [Józef Teodorowicz: ‘I have upheld this cathedral’: the Polish and Armenian world of the old cathedral of Lwów], „Hybryda”, 2019, 34;

Józef Teodorowicz: “Katedrę tę dźwigałem”. Ormiański i polski świat starodawnej lwowskiej świątyni [Józef Teodorowicz: ‘I have upheld this cathedral’: the Polish and Armenian world of the old cathedral of Lwów], „Rocznik Kresowy”, 5, 2019, 1;

Polscy Ormianie w drodze do niepodległej Polski [Polish Armenians and the path to Polish independence], „Rocznik Biblioteki Kraków”, 2I, 2018, 2l;

O wystawie „Tryptyk Armenii” [On the Armenian Triptych exhibition], in: Pasje życia. Dokumentacje jubileuszu Janusza Trzebiatowskiego [Passions of life: documentation of the Janusz Trzebiatowski festiwal], compiled by F. Nawratil, Kraków 2007;

Ziemia trudnych podziałów [Land of difficult divisions],  in: Tryptyk Armenii. Ołtarz – Pieśń – Z ręki Boga. Katedra 2017-2018 [‘Armenian Triptych: Altar – Song – From the Hand of God. Cathedrals 2017-2018’], T. Skoczek ed., Warszawa, 2019;

Ziemia trudnych podziałów [Land of difficult divisions], in: Tryptyk Armenii. Katalog wystawy obrazów Janusza Trzebiatowskiego [Armenian triptych: catalogue of an exhibition of paintings by Janusz Trzebiatowski] T. Skoczek ed., Warszawa 2019;

“Katedry” ormiańskie Janusza Trzebiatowskiego w Lublinie [Trzebiatowski’s Armenian Cathedrals exhibition in Lublin], „Nestor. Czasopismo Artystyczne”, 2020, 2 (52);

Katedry Trzebiatowskiego w Lublinie [Trzebiatowski’s Cathedrals exhibition in Lublin], „Hybryda”, 2020, 36;

“Katedry” ormiańskie Janusza Trzebiatowskiego w Lublinie, „Lublin”, 2020, nr 2 (100) [Trzebiatowski’s Armenian Cathedrals exhibition in Lublin];

Aktorka odeszła. Wspomnienie o Ewie Sztolcman-Kotlarczyk [An actress has departed us. Recollections of Ewa Sztolcman-Kotlarczyk], „Gazeta Krakowska”, 2001, 216;

Zmarł Stanisław Czecz [Stanisław Czecz has died], „Kraków”, 2013, 3 (101).

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