Ceremony to honor Polish exile in Northampton on Sunday
Published: 4/22/2022 9:07:09 PM
Modified: 4/22/2022 9:05:54 PM
The Polish Heritage Committee of Northampton is sponsoring an event on Sunday, April 24, for members and the public to join in commemorating the 185th anniversary of the death of August Malczewski vel Jakubowski, an exile from a revolution in Poland.
The gathering will start at noon at his gravesite for a memorial service at Bridge Street Cemetery to remember his death in Northampton. Jakubowski came to work in the city for a year as a French teacher at Miss Dwight’s Seminary for Young Ladies and died at 21 after falling ill. His students provided for his burial at the time.
Before coming to Northampton, he was exiled from Poland with other revolutionaries who participated in the failed uprising of November 1830 that fought to free Poland from Russia. After his exile, he wrote his history of Poland titled “The Remembrances of a Polish Exile.”
Father Adam Czarnecki of St. Valentine Polish National Catholic Church will hold the prayer service on Sunday, John Skibiski will read a short history of August’s family in Poland, and Fred Zimnoch will read his obituary from the Daily Hampshire Gazette.
— Sofi Shlepakov