Idzi Benedykt Radziszewski

Idzi Benedict Radziszewski (1 April 1871 – 22 February 1922) was a Polish Roman Catholic priest, philosopher of religion, the last rector of the Imperial Roman Catholic Theological Academy in Saint Petersburg, and co-founder as well as the first rector of the Catholic University of Lublin (KUL).

Biography Idzi Radziszewski was born in Bratoszewice near Łódź on 1 April 1871. He was the son of Konstanty Marcel and Józefa née Biernacka. His father was a teacher at elementary schools. He had two sisters, Janian and Elżbieta, and three brothers: Ignacy Dominik, Jerzy Szczepan, and Paweł. Ignacy Dominik was a rector of the Warsaw Politechnic, and Paweł was a professor of geology at the University of Vilnius.

Commemoration In 2016, the authorities of the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin initiated the construction of a monument to Radziszewski on Archbishop Józef Życiński Square in Lublin. The monument was unveiled on 8 December 2018, on the centenary of the founding of KUL. On 8 December 2022, the monument was dismantled, but following protests it was returned to its original location.

The likeness of Radziszewski appears on the reverse of a silver collector coin with a face value of 10 złoty issued by the National Bank of Poland in 2019 to mark the centenary of KUL. His image also appears on a postage stamp issued in 2018 by Polish Post, designed by Andrzej Gosik, with a face value of 2.60 złoty and a print run of 100,000 copies.