DUNIN, MARTIN VON

Archbishop of Gniezno and Poznań; b. Wal, near Rawa (Mazowiecka), Poland, Nov. 11, 1774; d. Poznań, Dec. 26, 1842. He came from an impoverished noble family and was ordained (1797) following studies at the German College in Rome. After serving at Gniezno as canon from 1808 and as chancellor from 1815, and at Poznań as canon and educational adviser to the Prussian government from 1824, he became in 1831 archbishop of the sees of Gniezno and Poznań (whose personal union ended after World War II).

Dunin did his utmost for peace and the easing of tensions between Prussia and its Polish subjects but came into open conflict over mixed marriages, then a crucial question for Prussian bishops. Even after Archbishop droste zu vischering of Cologne was imprisoned, Dunin continued to oppose civil law by insisting that persons contracting mixed marriages promise to educate their children as Catholics. For this he was condemned to six months in prison, a sentence the king commuted to residence in Berlin (1839). When Dunin returned to his see without authorization, he was detained under house arrest at Colberg for ten months until King Friedrich Wilhelm IV (1840–61) came to the throne. The new ruler was sympathetic toward the Catholic Church and his Polish subjects. Dunin returned to his sees (August 1840), where he had been supported by clergy and faithful. During his remaining years Dunin maintained good relations with the royal house and left a reputation as a pious, benevolent, zealous pastor.

See Also: cologne, mixed marriage dispute in

Bibliography: f. pohl, Martin von Dunin (Marienburg 1843). h. brÜck, Geschichte der katholischen Kirche in Deutschland im 19. Jahrhundert, 4 v. (Mainz 1887–1908) 2:335–354. m. laubert, Die preussische Polenpolitik, 1772–1914 (3d ed. Cracow 1944). r. lill, Die Beilegung der Kölner Wirren, 1840–1842 (Düsseldorf 1962). b. stasiewski, Neue deutsche Biographie (Berlin 1953–) 4:197–198. r. aubert, Dictionnaire d'histoire et de géographie ecclésiastiques, ed. a. baudrillart et al. (Paris 1912–) 14:1050–52.

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