Vizitační protokoly — pramen k poznání činnosti a práce nižších složek církevní správy Volyňského vikariátu v rozmezí let 1853–1918

Abstract

Parish priests’ activities in the second half of the 19th and early 20th century were quite varied anddemanding and they can be explored through a variety of historical sources. One of them is a set ofvisitation documents which the parish priests themselves drew up as they were responsible for theirhandling and filling. By responding to questions in the visitation questionnaires they reported onthe status of their parish to the higher echelons of the church administration. They did not send inonly reports on their parishes but also on their duties, opinions and work.The present study aims to show the great variety of duties that had to be performed by the parishpriests by analysing the visitation protocols from the territory of the Volyně vicariate from theperiod 1853–1918. In addition, using the answers to the questionnaire questions, it endeavours to uncoversomething from the personal sphere of their life; for example, whether they were cultured,whether they used to have personal hobbies in their free time, or which genre of literature theypreferred.