The text describes the small church of St John in Lviv, which in its original (wooden) state was probably administered by the Dominicans, who found their way there thanks to Jacek Odrowąż (Source: "Tygodnik Illustrowany", Warsaw 1869, Series 2, T:4, pp. 192-193, after: Digital Library of the University of Lviv).

A modernised reading of the text.

St John's Church in Lviv.

St John's Church, modest and small, is situated by one of the most frequented routes, from which clouds of dust fly towards its narrow windows and add to the greyness of the walls, already grey due to the deer's old age. Apart from this, however, let us add that it stands in the most filthy, unpleasant and, since Lviv has existed, always least Christian quarter of the city. The present-day construction of the church is by no means from the century in which it was originally built. It was probably first built from wood. However, it has retained to this day the shapes of the old larch churches. The same simplicity of style, leanness, even the same, as in those former churches. It is certain that a church already existed here before 1250, and thus saw the birth of Lviv, as this town was founded between 1250 and 1255. As for the original location of Lviv, Mr Sharanevich, in his work written in Ruthenian titled "Old Lviv from 1260-1350", claims, in agreement with Mr Vagilevich (see "Kółko Rodzinne" of 1860), that "the first settlement of Lviv was where the village of Zniesienie is today, so named after the local church of the Assumption (Voznesenja)."This original Lviv was demolished ten years after its construction by its own rulers, the Ruthenian princes, namely by Lviv, at the request of Borundai, the Tartar chieftain. Twenty years later Lviv was once again a fortified city and the capital of the principality ruled by Lev. Thus, according to Mr Szaraniewicz, 1283 is the year of Lviv's re-founding. The churches of the original Lviv have experienced various vicissitudes, for although one or the other of them no longer exists, they survived the collapse of the original settlement for many years, and one of the witnesses of today's Lviv, which was conceived 600 years ago, is St. John's Church. No one has dared to deny that this church is one of the oldest in Lviv. There is only a difference of opinion as to who was its first owner. We are not talking about the founders of the church, as this has not yet been investigated by even the most diligent and competent scholars, but about those who were the first to be the promoters of the Christian faith and the guardians of the church. Mr. W. A. Maciejowski, in his "Memoirs on the History, Writing and Legislation of the Slavs", writes as follows: "In the settlement which was given the name of Lviv around 1259, they already had St John's Church in 1234." We are speaking here of the Dominicans, who were brought to Poland soon after the first establishment of their order, and from there (says Mr Maciejowski) were sent to Red Ruthenia with the help of Jacek Odrowąż, later counted among the saints by the church. Two of this holy man's companions, Bernard (Gerard) and Jacob, were soon chosen and ordained bishops of Ruthenia, without being assigned permanent cathedrals. It is said that a church already existed in the 12th century. This is by no means impossible, as the historical traces show that the settlement which (according to Mr Maciejowski, and as stated in one of the oldest Ruthenian chronicles, the so-called "Ipatiev Chronicle") was named Lviv around the year 1259 must have been known by another name much earlier. St John's Church must have existed in this settlement even before it was called Lviv, and is therefore older than Lviv itself. It is very interesting to learn from Felicyan Lobeski that a painting of Our Lady of Czestochowa, once entrusted by Prince Leo to the care of the Basilians, was housed and kept in this very church. We took these details from a brochure very carefully compiled by Mr Karol Widman entitled "The Church of St John in Lviv. Lviv, 1869", the entire proceeds from the sale of the booklet are earmarked for the restoration of the church we discussed earlier.