#5 - Women of the Polish Brethren: Hidden Voices in Raków

Who were the women woven into the life of the Polish Brethren — the Nontrinitarian community centered at Raków in the 17th century — and how did they shape doctrine, education, and exile? This episode reconstructs the social and institutional setting that made female engagement possible: the Racovian Academy and press, the noble households that sheltered dissenters, patterns of female literacy and patronage in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, and the archival traces that let historians hear women’s voices across centuries. Expect vivid scenes of households and classrooms, primary sources such as the Racovian Catechism and the 1658 expulsion decree, and careful attention to what the archives do — and do not — tell us.