Julian Antonowicz

Nobility (the Janina coat of arms).

In the late 60s, he joined the Basilian order (the Lithuanian province) and became a priest. He continued school education while staying at the monastery. It is presumed that he attended the Principal School of Lithuania. In the late 70s, he went to study in Rome at Collegio di Propaganda Fide (the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith). A polyglot.

A teacher at the Basilian school in Volodymyr, from 1783 until 1793 he held the position of the head of the school. He taught mathematics, physics, rhetoric, as well as French, Italian and English. He fulfilled his duties perfectly. At the time the position of the school inspector appointed by the Commission of National Education was held by Tadeusz Czacki, who decided to convert the Basilian order into a congregation which would handle the running of schools. Contrary to his fellow monks’ expectations, Antonowicz supported the inspector’s plans. In consequence, he withdrew from the Basilian order, adopted the Latin rite and moved to Czacki’s estate in Poryck. It was then that he met members of the Dzików line of the Tarnowski family. He became a home teacher and tutor of Jan Feliks Tarnowski and his son Jan Bogdan Tarnowski. He wrote the first English study book in Polish. A part of his works survived in the form of manuscripts.

• Irmina Kotlarska, Intencjonalność wypowiedzi w „Dzienniku nauczyciela domowego” (1814–1823) Juliana Antonowicza w świetle analizy pragmatycznej i leksykalnej, Zielona Góra 2016, s. 41-52.
• Józefat Skruteń, Antonowicz Julian, [w:] Polski słownik biograficzny, t. 1, Kraków 1935, s. 142.