The present paper analyses the seventeenth-century devotional (pious) epithalamia written by Stanislaw Teodor Piotrkowczyk (c. 1625-1674/75), Polish poet and Krakow printer, on the occasion of his sisters’ vows. The aim of the article is to show that Piotrkowczyk combined Christian, pagan, and biographical elements in panegyrics and referred to the medieval tradition of epithalamia modelled on the Songs of Songs and Psalms 44 (45), as well as secular epithalamia. Although the poet imitated the rules of creating secular wedding songs, he nevertheless created a different quality of panegyrics-spiritual epithalamia, which were laudations of women who rejected worldly comforts and decided to live a vita contemplativa. In his occasional verses, Piotrkowczyk emphasised the sacred dimension of the monastic life and how it enabled internal improvement and, through spiritual effort, a gradual approach to God and union with Him.

This article is written in English.