The article deals with the Sobieski family, in particular John III Sobieski's middle son, Aleksander Sobieski, who died in Rome. He was buried in the Capuchin church in Piazza Barberini. The article also contains a detailed description of Aleksander Sobieski's tombstone.

Source: Tygodnik Ilustrowany, vol. 2, no. 62, 1860, pp. 587-588, [after:] University of Łódź Digital Library.

A modernised reading of the text

Monument to Aleksander Sobieski, in the Capuchin church in Rome

Whoever has guarded the manuscripts in the bookshops of Rome recounting the unheard-of joy that the Viennese victory caused in the Christian capital, and the several weeks of solemn celebrations that it gave rise to; whoever has seen the magnificent church dedicated to the Name of the Virgin Mary (John III saw in a dream her image with the inscription: "In hoc nomine vinces"), built in the Thracian forum, to immortalise the commemoration of that day, - he will clearly comprehend the veneration and gratitude which the Apostolic See has not ceased to surround the name of the Sobieski family.

This name was popular in the Caesars' stronghold, not only when the still resounding sound of the glorious pogrom shook the seven hills, but long afterwards. Until the French Commonwealth invaded Italian soil, the adventures and glory of King John were a favourite theme of winter evening stories told in family circles. Today, old people still live there, whose earliest childish remembrances are the legends of King John, and the folk improvisers of Zatibiran sing the long heroic poem "in ottava rima", like "Jerusalem" and "Orland", about the liberation of "le mille Ile di Polonia", by the invincible king of the House of Sobieski.

Sobieski knew of such compassion for himself, awakened by the deeds of this knight of Providence, who trampled down the brightness of the Ottoman moon, which contemporary writers never mentioned except by applying to him the words of St. Matthew's Gospel: "Fuit homo missus a Deo, cui nomen erat Johannes." So when unfortunate accidents drove the hero dynasty away from the throne, several of its members went to Rome, and Rome received them with open arms, as the tribe of the husband most popular, nay, the only one popular in it of all the defenders of the cross.

Queen Maria Kazimiera, widowed, came to the eternal city and lived there for several years. You can still see a house decorated with her coat of arms on Monte Pincio: Janina of the Sobieski family and the hares of the Margraves d'Arquien, amid a shield resplendent with an eagle and a chase. Above, they show the balcony from which she watched the Roman carnival, together with her centenarian father, newly endowed with the cardinal's purple.

Mary Clementine of Sobieski, wed to the Pretender James II, and mother of the last two Stuarts, James III and Henry Benedict, Cardinal of Eborace, spent much of her life in Rome and left behind a lasting reminder of rare Christian virtue, and educated wits and charms. The woodcuts of the time have preserved for us the magnificence of her funeral, at which, more than thunderbolts and torches, the lovely glow of the Viennese sun and grandiose grandeur shone. This radiance even opened to the corpse the heavy doors of St Peter's Basilica, where popes alone have been buried since time immemorial. Peter's viceroyalty, the former Hittites of the Crusades, felt that knighthood was also a kind of priesthood, and that John, or at least his blood, had its place stamped beside Peter's, on that labyrinth of transformed and triumphant faith which is the pharaoh of Christianity.

It was in Rome that Duke Alexander Sobieski, middle son of John III, and Henry de la Grange, Margrave d'Arquien, his father-in-law, died in the 105th year of his life. The tombstone of the former in a faithful exaggeration is here enclosed.

Prince Alexander lies at the Capuchins, near the Piazza Barberini. His tombstone, made of the most beautiful Carrara marble, is crowned with his effigy in bas-relief, held by two angels, one of whom, weeping, extinguishes the symbolic torch of life, while the other places a sceptre on the headrest, on which rests a crown, the crown that the Poles were not allowed to see on the temples of John's son, but only on his bones, turned into the boulder of the tomb lid. The coffin is borne by a crowned eagle, whose left wing rises triumphantly from under the mortal burden, soaring against the background of the coffin, as on a coat of arms, while a silver-feathered bird holds in its claw a serpent, the emblem of eternity and immortality, the after-glow wreath which it invented and raised above it, wandering through the graves.... The impression that this most beautiful of Polish monuments in Rome makes on the onlooker is immense.

The tombstone of Mari Kazimiera's father is in the church of San Luigi dei Francesi, above the covered door. The Cardinal de la Grange, according to the custom of the time, is depicted here as standing on a rostrum in cardinal's robes, with an open book in his hand and the Order of the Holy Spirit on his chest. As a most excellent panegyric, the following words are laid down in the inscription: "Father-in-law of the great John."