Saint Adalbert as a Religious Hero in the Polish Cultural Landscape

Abstract

This article is meant to show the cultural mechanism connected to the perception of Catholic saints through Campbell‟s concept of mythologisation. I have focused on Saint Adalbert who functions in the Polish culture not so much as a historical, but rather as a mythological figure. Saint Adalbert is the national Saint Patron of Poland, and thus holds the status of a religious hero. Only sporadically is he perceived as a popular saint. I have based my analysis on materials from the ethnological fieldwork on the cult of Saint Adalbert carried out on the whole territory of Poland in the years 1995-2001, as well as on publications by other authors who have looked at topics connected to Saint Adalbert. I have also used theoretical works concerning the process of mythicisation of this figure. My analysis focuses on the successive stages of mythicisation undergone by Saint Adalbert as seen from the perspective of Joseph Campbell‟s scheme. I have arranged this theory into a model. It shows the universality of the process during which a historical figure is transformed into a mythological hero. Moreover, it emphasized the qualities of a religious hero.