Church throughout the history of the nineteenth century Nowosiółek.

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Construction of the present church  in Nowosiółki started after 1803 from the foundation of Ludwik Baron Rastawiecki of the Sas coat of arms, who in the same year bought the property in Nowosiółki for the dowry she received in connection with the wedding on May 18, 1803 in Warsaw, his wife Teresa Rastawiecka née Krajewski of the Trzaska coat of arms. Due to his upbringing in the Roman Catholic faith, Ludwik Rastawiecki erected a chapel on the purchased property, which throughout history also served as the Orthodox Church, and then the Roman Catholic Church. The heir of Nowosiółek, Ludwik Rastawiecki, was born in 1772 and was the son of Andrzej Rastawiecki, who  in 1781 he received the hereditary title of a baron in Galicia from Emperor Joseph II. Ludwik graduated in philosophy and law at the University of Lviv in 1791, he was the page of Stanisław August (he was to make a companion by his side), later the marshal of the Tomaszów sejmik, a member of the Seym, an active freemason - in 1812 a master in the temple of Isis, in 1817 . affiliated to the box of Casimir the Great. Ludwik was also the vice-president of the board of the Zamość poviat, from 1831 he was a member of the Seym and the castellan of the Kingdom of Poland, from 1841 he was the judge of peace in the Tomaszów poviat. Due to numerous merits, in 1850 he was awarded the title of baron in the Kingdom and was a deputy of the general confederation of both nations to Frederick Augustus of Saski and the Duke of Warsaw.  

In the chapel erected by Rastawiecki, two side altars were created, and in front of the main altar, an organ choir was created, supported on two pillars.  The building was made of brick from Rastawiecki's private brickyard with the initials LR signed on each brick. The entire temple was plastered on the outside, and the roof was covered with tin plates. Following the trend of the era at that time, the founder commissioned the construction of a baroque-classicist temple with an interior based on an illusion of painting, especially on the vaults and on the side walls, by painting figures of, among others, saints with a shadow visible behind them. On the north side, a chancel was built, which was closed in a semi-circle with two windows on opposite sides, and below there were two  four-sided sacristy. Most likely then the liturgy in the chapel was performed by a priest from the parish in Rzeplin, within the borders of which were Nowosiółki.  

In 1805, the son of the Rastawiecki family, Edward, was born in the manor house in Nowosiółki, who spent his youth in the Lublin region.  In 1816, Ludwik, baron Rastawiecki, with his wife and son Edward, moved to Warsaw. The trip was connected with the creation in 1815 at the Congress of Vienna, the Kingdom of Poland, the so-called Congress Poland from the Duchy of Warsaw that preceded it. At that time, Nowosiółki was on the very border  The Kingdom of Poland. The Rastawiecki family decided to leave, because numerous schools were established in Warsaw, as well as the University of Warsaw, and  so it was obvious that Edward would get a better education there. Before 1807, according to the map from 1795, the village was within the borders of the Austrian partition, so all economic and scientific directions were concentrated in Lviv. The change of borders after 1815 blocked the possibility of going to Lviv, where Ludwik, baron Rastawiecki, graduated. The only correct solution was to leave for Warsaw, as the Napoleonic war caused a shift of the borders and after 1813 the village was under the Russian partition.

After leaving for Warsaw, Baron Rastawiecki would come to Nowosiółki  only occasionally to check the condition of the property he owned. This worsened the condition of the temple, as the inhabitants of Nowosiółki could not keep such a large building in good condition. The collapse of the chapel into a decaying building was also associated with geopolitical perturbations, because Nowosiółki was located on the very border of the Kingdom of Poland until 1830, and later between the Russian and Austrian partitions. Edward, Baron Rastawiecki, who in 1833, after the death of Teresa Rastawiecka's mother in 1830, came from Warsaw with his father, who permanently lived in the manor in Nowosiółki, came to the rescue. It was probably also caused by the outbreak of the November Uprising and the related numerous battles in Warsaw. Rastawiecki decided at that time to significantly expand the palace in Dołhobyczów, which was located in the Rastawiecki estate, and to renovate the chapels in Nowosiółki. The renovation was very significant, as a new vault was then built, and the entire interior was covered with a new polychrome. In the basement of the chapel under the main altar, a Rastawiecki mausoleum was created, to which the body of Teresa Rastawiecka was transferred from the cemetery in Dołhobyczów, and in 1847, after his death, the body of Ludwik Baron Rastawiecki, who died in the manor house in Nowosiółki, was placed.

Edward Rastawiecki  he was a member of many important scientific societies, incl. Imperial Society of Russian History and Antiquities, Scientific Society in Krakow and Society for the Encouragement of Fine Arts in Warsaw. He took an active part in the cultural life of Warsaw. He also did not refuse to participate in various social works at the Warsaw Agricultural Society, the Charity Society or the Governing Council of the Warsaw-Vienna Iron Road. He was active in public in Warsaw, where he owned a small palace on Mazowiecka Street, but he organized an art collection and a library in Dołhobyczów. According to the posthumous hourglass, Edward was a Knight of the Papal Order of Saint Gregory, of the Austrian Franz Joseph and of the Danish Danenbrok. In 1837, Rastawiecki expanded his father's seat with the participation of Antoni Beck. His collection, which consisted of over 200 paintings, included works by Marceli Bacciarelli, Piotr Norblin, Aleksander Orłowski, Antoni Brodowski and Antoni Blank. Unfortunately, many of these works were scattered and damaged during World War I and II. He died on February 23, 1874 and was buried at the Powązki Cemetery in Warsaw.  

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Many years earlier, before the construction of the Rastawiecki Chapel, on the other side of the water reservoir there was a church - a Greek Catholic church, erected by the Stężycki Staroste, Karol Tarło, in the 17th century after the invocation of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. According to the 1930 census carried out in the Tomaszów district, it appears that the churches were initially built for the Roman Catholic population, later renamed a Greek Catholic church, however, from the lists of parochs made in the Belz region, it appears that the Greek Catholic parish existed in Nowosiółki from the 16th century and the church was built from the beginning. the function of the church.

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When browsing the list of consistory of the Chełmno diocese, we can read the first information about the appearance of the church in Nowosiółki. Protocol of the visit from 1732, written by the commissioners controlling the parish: Fr. Józef Ostaszewski and Fr. Mikołaj Sarobkiewicz says that the walls of the church were good, but the roof needed renovation. Down  the interior was led by a single door mounted on three iron hinges and ravens, closed with a handle. There were two windows in wooden frames in the building. The description shows that there were four bells on the church tower, and two on the facade. In 1761, the parish was visited by the bishop of Chełm, Maksymilian Ryłła, and the protocol of the visit prepared at that time indicated that the church was located in the roofs and walls of the property, which may indicate  that from the front visit the temple was renovated, probably from the foundation of Ludwika Trębińska, who at that time was the owner of the estate in Nowosiółki. In addition, this protocol also includes a record of a wooden belfry next to the church and the cemetery, which was to be fenced.  

From the protocol of the visit carried out by Fr. Michał Grabowiecki in 1775. as well as the visit from 1780 shows that the condition of the church was good and at that time the church equipment was expanding - the church acquired new banners, pictures, chalices and robes. In these descriptions  the gold-plated pro conservando Venerabili can was replaced, 2 goblets (silver and tin), 2 silver and tin patens, 2 tin stars, tin spoon. Over the following years, new crowns, liturgical instruments - ampoules, purificators and corporals - were purchased.  

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The first parish registers in which births, marriages and deaths were recorded in the parish date back to 1812. Numerous signatures show that at that time the pastor of the Greek Catholic parish was Father Jan Koźmiński until April 15, 1824, when he died in the presbytery at the age of 65. At present, the brother of the deceased priest, Jakub Koźmiński, became the administrator and clerk of the civil status, and from 1826 Leon Koźmiński - later parish priest in Dołhobyczów - became the administrator of the parish.  Julian Słabniewicz became the parish priest from 1829, who was also the dean of the Tychy Deanery. He was the parish priest until 1857, but due to his poor health, he was assigned to him in 1856 as an aid in the parish,  son of Father Nestor Słabniewicz. Father Julian died in Nowosiółki on May 30, 1857 and, as indicated in the book of births, marriages and deaths, the death was certified by the steward of the Rastawiecki estate - Aleksander Konopatzki. From 1868, an order to save civil records in Russian was introduced, and  the last preserved book of the Greek Catholic parish, whose pastor was Father Nestor Słabniewicz, is from 1872.  In 1875, due to numerous campaigns by the Russian administration aimed at the liquidation of the Greek Catholic religion in the Chełm diocese, the church and the wooden Greek Catholic church became the seat of the Orthodox parish of the Dormition of the Mother of God. Inhabitants of the parish,  they were forcibly forced by the apparatus of the Russian invader to convert to Orthodoxy. Celebrating the liturgy in the Greek Catholic denomination was completely forbidden. The then parish priest, Nestor Słabniewicz, became an Orthodox priest until 1897, when he died and was buried in the cemetery.  

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The question of having a church in the first half of the 20th century.

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After the end of World War I, the building of the church, due to the location of Nowosiółki within the borders of the Republic of Poland, as before the partitions, was in the possession of the local state authorities. The temple was taken away from the Orthodox parish on the charge of illegally taking it over in 1875, and since then, no masses or other services have been held in the church. In day  On August 31, 1919, the inhabitants of the village of Nowosiółki and others, including Poturzyn and Wasylów, sent a request to the bishop of Lublin to hand over the church to Catholics for prayer. More than 60 people by name and surname signed the request. In the justification of the request it was indicated that the elderly and children must walk a long distance to other parishes in order to pray in the church. The operating parish near Nowosiółki was the parish in Rzeplin, located more than 6 kilometers from Nowosiółki, or the parish in Oszczów. The church was unused, locked, so it was right  According to the inhabitants, it would be handed over to the Catholics. Under the current law, the bishop of Lublin could not decide to hand over the church building to Catholics, so on November 24, 1919 he sent the request to the Ministry of Religious Denominations and Public Education in Warsaw.  In response to the request, the bishop of Lublin, Marian Fulman, received a letter,  in which it was indicated that the handover of the church building can only take place temporarily and does not prejudge the question of ownership and further possession. Also the Starost Tomaszowski, who in a letter of January 7, 1920, indicated that there are no obstacles to handing over the church to Catholics was also obliged to comment on the transfer of the church. The Ministry, in a letter of January 29, 1920, allowed the temporary use of the church for religious purposes. The procedure of handing over the keys to the church was taken care of by Starost Tomaszowski and from April 20, 1920  years, prayers could take place in the church. At that time, there was a shortage, therefore a priest appointed by a bishop from another parish came to the church every Sunday.  For years, the Lublin voivode, despite the existence of premises, did not apply to the Ministry for the creation of a parish,  because there was a dispute between the Orthodox community and Catholics over the ownership of the church. The Orthodox patriarch of the Chełm diocese made numerous requests for the return of the church. The authorities did not want to exacerbate the existing conflict between the parties and delayed making the decision to establish a parish in Nowosiółki. Until 1938, Catholics held services in the church only on Sundays and the most important holidays.  

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The church in Nowosiółki, despite numerous requests and efforts of the Catholic community, could not become the seat of the parish for almost twenty years. In April 1938, the state authorities issued an ordinance obliging the army to help in establishing a parish in the Lublin region. In the Zamość region, this help was provided by the 3rd Infantry Division of the Legions in Zamość, led by commander Bruno Olbrycht. It was only the personal intercession of the commander Olbrycht that caused the Ministry to give a positive opinion on the permanent transfer of the church to Catholics and the establishment of a parish in it. On May 3, 1938, the bishop of Lublin personally erected the parish of the Transfiguration. It should be noted that the same call was made by the Orthodox parish after 1900, before the church was taken over by the state authorities, which results from the document sent by the Lublin voivode to the Ministry in 1931. The first parish priest was Father Józef Bednarczyk, who had to face the numerous tensions between the Orthodox and Catholic communities.  

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The appearance of the temple at the present time

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The church in Nowosiółki underwent many changes, mainly related to the renovation carried out by Edward Rastawiecki, at the same time arranging the family's crypt in the basement of the temple, but also related to the conversion of the chapel into an Orthodox church in 1875. The building of the temple was also not spared by World War II, during which the middle of the church was burnt, along with the roof and wooden vault. All items important for worship, including paintings, liturgical vessels, etc., were plundered. After the end of the war, the church required a thorough repair and a lot of work. People returning to Nowosiółki after 1945 were not able to make the financial outlays to cover the roof and repair the interior. During a pastoral visit  in the neighboring parish in Dołhobyczów, the bishop of Lublin, Stefan Wyszyński, staying in Nowosiółki, asked to cover the roof with reeds and other plants growing by the pond next to the church.

The temples were covered with a roof in 1948, when the interior was restored, if possible, and windows were added. In later years, other renovations were made and the polychromes and paintings were restored and brought to Nowosiółki from other places. In the seventies, the bell towers were renovated, the roof of which was burned down during World War II.

The external façade of the nave is divided by even pilasters,  and at single corners that support the simplified entablature. A similar entablature is crowned with the smooth walls of the chancel and sacristy. Front elevation  it is topped with a triangular gable. The entire front was formed during the renovation carried out by Edward Baron Rastawiecki after 1833, when the towers were liquidated. On the axis of the front elevation, there is a shallow rusticated break which, in the gable area, turns into an overhang with a recess enclosed by an arcade. The windows in the nave are closed  with a segmental arch, and a semicircular arch in the presbytery and sacristy. Inside  of the church, the nave walls are divided by wall pillars with Ionic pilasters. Between them there are semi-circular recesses with windows at the top. Multicolored lines of the rainbow run along the vault, which was made of wood and covered with layers of reed and plaster. The music choir is supported by three semicircular pillar arcades with Ionic pilasters and classicist entablature. The planes above the arcades are covered with classicist stucco decorations. The body is covered with a barrel vault with lunettes, and the remaining rooms with ceilings.  Black and white marble tiles in a checkerboard pattern were laid on the church floor. A polychrome covering the interior  it has a late baroque character, created by illusionist painted altars. On the sides of the main altar, there are painted figures of St. st. Peter and Paul on columned pedestals. In the center there is an image of Christ on the cross from the eighteenth century. Two side altars by the rainbow form illusionistic, fluted pilasters in the finials, angels holding the attributes of Christ and Mary. The altars also feature classicistic stucco elements, including frames for the image of the Transfiguration of the Lord and of the Immaculate Conception. The original paintings located in the frames have not survived to the present day, because the paintings in the side altars were painted in 1954, and the image of Christ on the cross was probably brought from another temple.  

There are relics of St. Faustina Kowalska, which are on the side altar of the Transfiguration. Currently, there is a monument in the church made of linden wood by a parishioner from Poturzyn, who gave the parish such a valuable gift.  

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Priests of the Transfiguration of the Lord parish in Nowosiółki  

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1. priest Józef Bednarczyk, parish priest in the years 1938 - 1940

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2. Father Edward Szymkiewicz, administrator of the parish in 1940 - 1944 -  was born in 1909 in Libawa, Latvia, in a Polish clerical family, where father Antoni and mother Elżbieta took care of the religious and national upbringing of their children. Father Edward spent his childhood years in Libawa, then in Minsk, and the longest in Chernihiv. After the death of his parents during the war in 1920, the 11-year-old went to the Orphanage in Turkowice. This center was established after 1917 for Polish children who were victims of the October Revolution. Due to great faith, Fr. Szymkiewicz, was noticed by the sisters who saw in him the spark of a calling. Therefore, in the school year 1923. he began his studies at a small Jesuit Seminary in Chełm. In 1925, at the age of sixteen, he began his novitiate with Jesuits in Kalisz. In July 1927, he made his first religious vows in Kalisz and was sent to study philosophy in France. After three years, he returned to Poland and began four years of theological studies in Lublin at the Jesuit Theological College of Bobolanum. He was ordained a priest on December 5, 1937 in Warsaw by Bishop. Stanisław Gall. After passing the probation exams, he found himself in Gdynia, where he worked as a priest, preaching, preaching conferences and retreats. The monastic authorities assigned him to the so-called writers, grouped in a religious house on ul. Rakowiecka in Warsaw, where the relics of St. Andrzej Bobola. With the outbreak of World War II, Fr. Szymkiewicz started working at a sanitary facility in Warsaw as a chaplain, and after the Germans entered, he was arrested and imprisoned in Pawiak, where he suffered severe typhus, but was released from prison. These experiences contributed to breaking ties with the law. He was released on June 17, 1940. From June 1940 to March 20, 1944, he was the administrator of the Nowosiółki and Wiszniów parishes in the Tomaszów deanery. The church in Nowosiółki was seized by the Ukrainians. As Fr. Edward, the hostess Helena Szymańska, arranged a chapel in the parish's parlor and thus saved many church and private belongings of the previous parish priest. There were also several Ukrainian attacks, and Father Edward, thanks to the courage of the hostess, avoided death. Additionally, from June to August 1940, after his arrest and deportation to the Dachau camp, Fr. Dominika Maja, Fr. Szymkiewicz, administered the Łaszczów parish. When the front was approaching, and the Bug River area flared up with riots and attacks, Fr. From March 1944 to May 1944, Edward was a partisan. From May 21, 1944, he was a temporary administrator in Horyszów Polski near Zamość. At the beginning, he arranged a temporary chapel in Stabrów. Then he regained the church and walked through the huts behind the boards to the choir. From May 16, 1945 to June 5, 1948, he worked in the Dub parish, in the Tomaszów Lubelski deanery. Periodically from April 22 to October 13, 1947, Fr. Szymkiewicz also served the parish of Zubowice4. On November 23, 1947, Fr. Szymkiewicz, as an ex-Jesuit, signed the incardination decree, swore allegiance to the diocese and thus became the priest of the Lublin diocese. On June 5, 1948, at his own request, he was dismissed from the administration of the Dub parish and appointed administrator of the Kumów parish5. On June 30, 1950, Fr. Szymkiewicz was arrested. He did not return from prison until February 8, 1952, when it was found out that he was not guilty. The Military District Court in Lublin sentenced him to prison for failing to report the presence of members of the underground to Kumów (they came to the priest for money that he had to build the presbytery). From June 30, 1950 to December 31, 1951, he served his sentence in the Lublin Castle, and then in Rawicz. After his release, on the "advice" of the County Public Security Office in Chełm, he had to change his place of residence and pastoral work. On June 10, 1952, Fr. Szymkiewicz became the parish priest in the Popkowice parish. He was the parish priest in this parish for 20 years, when he was then transferred to the position of the parish priest in Księżomierzy. Fr. Edward died suddenly before the morning mass. on Saturday, November 15, 1980 and was buried in the cemetery in Księżomierzy.

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3. Father Antoni Peret, who was the administrator of the parish in the years 1947 - 1951  

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4. Father Stanisław Wolanin, parish priest in the years 1951 - 1958 - was born in Orzechówka, poviat Brzozów. In 1901 he passed his high school diploma. For a year he served in the army and passed the officer exam at the 35th Infantry Regiment in Budejovice. In 1903, he began his seminary studies in Przemyśl, where he was ordained a priest on June 16, 1907. He worked as a vicar in the following parishes: Turka, Bieliny and Łętownia. During World War I, he was a military chaplain in Vienna, Sopron, Hungary, Przemyśl, Tirol and Trieste. In 1918, he started working in the USA parish. After a leave of absence in 1919-1921, he became a parish priest in Dobromil, and from 1932 in Świtarzów. In 1933 he was excardinated to the Archdiocese of Lviv. As part of expatriation, he settled in Ostrów, in part of the Archdiocese of Lviv, in the Sokal poviat and in the deanery of Bełz. He stayed there until the Ukrainian nationalists (a fool of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army Taras Onyszkewycz "Hałajda") attacked the town on the night of March 31, 1944. They burned down nearly 300 houses and murdered 76 Poles. The Polish self-defense of Ostrow was located at three points: at the railway station, at school and at church. This is where Poles were to concentrate in the event of an alarm. The defense of the church was commanded by Fr. Wolanin. The school's defense group was led by a local teacher. The Ukrainians did not manage to kill all the Poles, but they burned down the village with thatched houses. The surviving Poles escaped. Two weeks after this crime, the Bandera followers murdered 17 Poles, mostly elderly, near the Sołokija River, who had not left Ostrow. Nine more Poles were killed in subsequent attacks in 1944. The rest went west for fear of further attacks. The Germans helped them by providing a rescue train for the Poles, thanks to which they reached the vicinity of Przeworsk.

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5. Father Józef Kruk in the years 1958 - 1966

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6. Father Stanisław Pilichowski in the years 1966 - 1988

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7. Father Stanisław Żak in the years 1988 - 2015

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8.  Father Jerzy Rzeszowski, currently since 2015  

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