EN
The Latin Convent of the Benedictine Sisters was founded by Katarzyna Saporowska in Lviv in 1596. For over 350 years, despite numerous wars, fires, and threats of dissolution, the nuns have managed to continuously lead a monastic life in the monastery that Katarzyna founded. It was only with the outbreak of World War II, its course and the establishment in 1945 of the new political order in Europe that the Benedictines were forced to leave Lviv and their home. They were assigned a new place of residence in Krzeszow in Lower Silesia, at which they arrived on May 31, 1946. The nuns transported part of the library accumulated in Lviv with them to Krzeszow, which became the basis for the organization of the library in the Krzeszow monastery. The Benedictines created a new structural system by separating the library into the following collections: • current books (contemporary) - containing books published since the nineteenth century to contemporary times. It is currently the main part of the library, which also includes religious books from the former school library in Lvov, • the school library, • Benedictine German-language books from the years 1919 -1946. It is the least developed of the book collections and has only an alphabetical catalogue. Today it is generally not used, hence it is stored in the archives of the monastery, • old prints. Also isolated, with the creation of a separate catalogue by subject and in alphabetical order, are the so-called secular books gathered since 1950 by Sister Teresa Gertrude Woleńska. Currently, the largest part of the library namely the current books collection consists of 10,281 volumes. In the years 1946-2000 the library grew mainly through purchases. In addition, the nuns received books as gifts from people friendly to the convent. The most needed publications are hand-written manuscripts. The thematic profile of the library is primarily literature on monastic contemplation and meditation.