Draft:Zofia Marchewka

Dear Friends.

Yes, I am aware that the article exists. The Polish version is however (1) longer and (2) more truthful (the current English article mixes historical truths and literary fiction set as historical truth). I would edit the article into the "mainspace" if not for a fact that my English is a second language and I am afraid of grammatical errors. And this is what I asked of you - to proofread the article as a native English speaker, so I can edit the currently existing English article which contains errors.

I am very sorry, but it seems to me that there was some kind of misunderstanding.

Best wishes --Kaworu1992 (talk) 22:58, 13 March 2024 (UTC)

Zofia Marchewka (died 1717 in Brześć Kujawski in Poland) was a Polish alleged witch. Her case was a late case of a witch trial, particularly as it resulted in an execution, and one of the last in Poland. It also illustrates the use of torture in witch trials and the process of confessions by torture used.

Trial
Zofia was a widow of janitor Maciej Marchewka. She was accused in 1717 (some sources mistakenly point at 1771) of being a witch and hurting various people's health and wealth with her magic. Two men, Adam Kwiatkowski and Stanisław Dąbrowa, suspected her of casting a spell (in a form of a devil influencing food) on a wife of Kwiatkowski, and of bewitching his son, a minor. The trial was held at a court in Brześć Kujawski, but neither the judging panel nor the way the trial went are known. Most possibly also documents from the trial didn't survive to current times - they were stored in Central Archives of Historical Records in Warsaw and were destroyed during the Second World War.

The data about the trial were saved only in the verdict, which was published in 19th century. In the verdict the court decided that the woman did cast spell, was Godless (pol. wyrzekła sie Boga) and got married to a devil, has stolen the sacramental bread from a church, and was attending, with other witches, sabbaths at Łysa Góra (Bald Mountain). According to the verdict, she was tortured and sentenced to death by burning at the stake.

In literature
Anna Koprowska-Głowacka remended of the history of Zofia Marchawska in 2010 in a short story. In the fictitious story, written on the basis of known facts from similar trials, she described the possible way the witch trial went.

According to the short story, Zofia Marchewka was arrested in 1771 upon the request by Kwiatkowski. When she claimed to be innocent, she was tortured, to force her confession. After the first series of tortures, the accused "admitted" to be a witch ans serve a devil who has tempted her to hurt people (including her husband and the wife of Kwiatkowski) and animals. She also admitted to participete in sabbaths and worship the devil. When the tortures stopped, she racented her testimony and again claimed to be innocent. When, she was tortured for the second time, what in effect forced her for to admit her guilt again. She was deemed to be a witch and sentenced to death at a stake.

Bibliografia

 * Tomasz Cybulski, Proces Zofii Marchewki w Brześciu Kujawskim, „Studia Włocławskie”, 17, 2015, p. 505-511.

Zobacz też

 * Witch trials
 * Katarzyna Paprocka
 * Krystyna Ceynowa

Category: 18th-century Polish women Category: Witch trials in Poland Category: People accused of witchcraft Category: 1717 deaths