Zbigniew z Łapanowa

Zbigniew of Łapanów (d. 1423/1428) was a Catholic priest, titular bishop of Laodicea, auxiliary bishop of Kraków, auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Halych and bishop of the Diocese of Kamianets-Podilskyi.

Biography Not much is known about Zbigniew's early life but what is known is that He came from a noble family bearing the Drużyna coat of arms, from Łapanów in Szczyrzyc. He was the son of Zbigniew, a Kraków knight, and his first wife; he had four brothers (one of whom, Mikołaj, was also a priest). He probably owed his ecclesiastical career to his family’s influence. He was the first auxiliary bishop of Kraków not to have come from a religious order. The exact date of his appointment as bishop is unknown but is known that by 1395 he was already a suffragan bishop of Kraków and titular bishop of Laodicea. Zbigniew would remain as an auxiliary bishop for around 10 years, in 1395 he would Diocese of Iława, to assist the elderly Archbishop Jakub Strzemię in the summer of 1395, and from there finally return once more to the Kraków diocese.

Even whilst he was still a bishop, Zbigniew was involved in property disputes with his brothers, which were settled in 1397 by an agreement under which he took possession of Kobylec and a quarter of the village of Sędowice. Shortly afterwards, he was involved in a legal dispute with the Abbot of Mogilno over the boundaries of Wola Lubecka and Sędowice. but Zbigniew is stll mentioned in 1426 where he appeared as a papal commissioner in a dispute among clergymen over a benefice in Dolsk, in the Diocese of Poznań and in January 1427 when Jagiełło decided to alleviate the poverty of the Bishop of Kamieniec and petitioned for the right to grant Zbigniew two vacant ecclesiastical benefices in Gniezno, under royal patronage, worth 60 silver grzywnas. Pope Martin V agreed to this, but the decision was made too late, as evident from a letter by the Grand Duke of Lithuania dated 28 November 1427, where it is stated that the bishop died in June 1427 and in which he requested that the Kamieniec bishopric, vacant following the death of Zbigniew be handed to Paweł, provost of the Church of the Holy Spirit in Vilnius.