Holy Cross Sermons

The Holy Cross Sermons (Polish: Kazania świętokrzyskie) are the oldest extant prose text in the Polish language, probably dating from the late 13th century, although the extant manuscripts date to the 14th century. The documents are named after the place where they were originally housed – the Holy Cross Monastery (pl) in Poland's Holy Cross Mountains (Polish: Góry Świętokrzyskie). They were discovered in 1890 by Aleksander Brückner, in the form of parchment pieces cut into reinforcing strips, inside the binding of a Latin language codex, which contained the Acts of the Apostles and the Apocalypse. The sermons were first published in 1891, in a "Philological Works" ("Prace Filologiczne") magazine. In 1934, facsimiles of the text were published by the Polish Academy of Learning, and in 2009, new, full edition of the sermons was issued, prepared by professor Paweł Stępień.