In the heart of Rome, near Piazza Spagna, is one of the most Polish sites in the whole of the Eternal City - the Resurrectionist monastery and the Church of the Resurrection. Here, works of art by leading Polish artists and extremely valuable mementos of the various waves of Polish emigration are collected.

Representation of Poles in Rome
. The Congregation of the Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ was founded by Bogdan Janski (1807-1840, friend of Adam Mickiewicz) in Paris in 1834, with the aim of providing spiritual care to the great wave of exile after the November Uprising. In 1837 the friars left for Rome, where on 27 March 1842 Piotr Semenenko (1814-1886) and Hieronim Kajsiewicz (1812-1873), together with five of their confreres, took their religious vows and began their life in community, ministering at the Church of Saints Claudio and Andrea dei Borgognoni (Santi Claudio e Andrea dei Borgognoni).

In Rome, the Resurrectionists undertook the work of reviving the representation of the Polish nation on the Tiber, admittedly informal, centuries-old and interrupted by the Partitions. In 1866, they founded the Polish College, whose task was to educate Polish clergy. Its seat was first located in via Salaria Vechia 50, and from 1878 in via Maroniti 22.

The Order's mission was the spiritual care of Polish emigrants, for whose representatives they provided pastoral services. They also supported the Polish artistic colony in Rome (including Adam Mickiewicz, Cyprian Norwid and Leopold Nowotny). The founding fathers were, however, not only ideological and organisational multipliers of the Polish exile, informal ambassadors of the Polish cause at the Vatican, but also a source of intellectual renewal for the Polish Church during the Partitions, especially through such representatives as Father Walerian Kalinka (1826-1886), founder of the Polish Resurrectionist Province, and Father Jan Koźmian (1814-1877), a publicist and social activist from Wielkopolska, who was associated with the congregation.

Polish decoration of the Resurrectionist congregation's headquarters
. In 1886, the Congregation of the Resurrectionists in Rome moved to a new building in Via San Sebastianello 11, designed by Pio Piacenti (1846-1928), professor at the Academy of St Luke, one of Rome's leading architects at the end of the 19th century (he was the author of, among other things, the Palazzo delle Esposizioni building). The decoration of the church, however, is mostly the work of Polish artists. The author of the iconographic programme was certainly also one of the confreres - most probably Fr Piotr Semenenko.

The interior of the single-nave temple contained decoration referring to the ideological programme of the Resurrection and the historical representation of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The apse-ended presbytery contains a marble altar of the foundation of Prince Władysław Czartoryski (1828-1894). On the left is a depiction of the Ascension by Henryk Siemiradzki (1843-1902), and opposite it the First Vows of the Resurrectionists and the Approval of the Congregation by Pius IX by Józef Unierzyski (1863-1948). One of the paintings showed the apostles to whom Christ hands over the mission of creating the Church on earth, while the other showed the Resurrectionist Order taking up the mission. In the nave are two paintings by Franciszek Krudowski (1860-1945) - Noli me tangere and Infidel Thomas - showing the risen Christ on earth. This zone also contained epitaphs: of the founding fathers (remaining) and of the benefactors of the congregation (moved to the crypt).

The significance of the upper zone is defined by the stained-glass windows made by the Munich Meyer workshop - the Risen Christ, the Blessed Virgin Mary and St Joseph (in the presbytery) and St Casimir and St Josaphat (in the choir) - patrons of the Republic, whose presence was recalled by the coats of arms of the White Eagle and the Pahonia in the painting decoration of the temple, covered up in the 1970s. The decoration is complemented by marble stoup stones chiselled by Witor Brodzki (1826-1904) and an altar crucifix with candlesticks, a gift of Pope Leo XIII.

A tympanum depicting the Risen Christ by Pius Weloński (1849-1931) was placed in the façade portal of the church. The construction and furnishing of the church was completed at the end of 1891, after the death of Fr Peter Semenenko.

The role of the Resurrectionist Church in the life of the Poles
. The church played an important role in the life of Polish émigrés, as evidenced by the epitaphs of its benefactors, including Maria Przeździecka chiseled by Antoni Olesiński (1855-1904), and the numerous gifts of the Polish aristocracy and artists collected in the Monastery Museum. Among these, the collection of works by Tomasz Oskar Sosnowski (1810--1886) is particularly rich, including a statue of Nicolaus Copernicus.

The Resurrectionist monastery, as a general house, is also an important point for Resurrectionist missions all over the world, as missions were sent from here to all of Europe (including to the territory of present-day Bulgaria, for pastoral care of Greek Catholics). One of the first pastors of the oldest Polish parish in the United States, in the settlement of Panna Maria in Texas, was the Resurrectionist Fr Adolf Bakanowski (1840-1916). The Resurrectionists also looked after several Polish parishes on the East Coast and in Chicago.

Undoubtedly, the Resurrectionists' art collection is - next to those of the Polish Library in Paris - the most important collection of art of the Polish exile from the Great Emigration to the Second World War remaining unchanged.