Accounts of funeral costs in the Norbertine convent in Zwierzyniec (17th–18th c.)

Abstract

The Norbertine convent in Zwierzyniec, which was founded and richly endowed by Jaxa Gryfita in the second half of the 12th century, has a vast archive of manuscripts and accounting documents. The latter include sheets with records of the costs of funerals of nuns who died in the second half of the 18th c. and the first half of the 19th c. (“Accounts of the funerals of sisters for 1762–1797” and “Receipts of sums and invitations to masses for dead sisters 1726–1825”). There are 16 sheets of paper of different size, with records of expenditure connected with the funerals of 11 nuns. In four cases there are also invitations to the funeral ceremony and data on money given as an offering to monasteries for coming to the burial and celebrating a mass for the dead. The documents concern nuns who had different positions in the convent hierarchy, from prioress to novice, which implies that at least since the middle of the 18th c. costs of each funeral were recorded. Accounts indicate that the funeral was usually three days after a sister’s death. The accounts give us insight into the details of the everyday life of an enclosed religious community and the functioning of the convent. Funeral costs were connected with the spiritual sphere (masses for the dead in Cracow churches, alms) and the material one (the coffin, candles, food for the participants of the ceremony). Differences in expenditure for particular burials confirm that the prioress had a very high position in the convent but costs of burying other nuns, whether they held any office or not, did not differ much.