Jan Chryzostom Pasek

Who was Jan Chryzostom Pasek?

Jan Chryzostom Pasek was a Polish nobleman and writer in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. He is best remembered for his memoirs, which are a valuable historical source about Baroque sarmatian culture and events in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.

Born in Węgrzynowice in 1636, into a minor szlachta family, he attended a Jesuit school. Pasek enlisted in the army at age 19 and for 11 years he was a soldier in a Polish military, where he fought in the campaigns under hetman Stefan Czarniecki against Sweden, in the Denmark campaign, took part in the war and negotiations with Moscow, fought the rokoszans of Lubomirski and Turks. In 1667 he married and retired to his estate in Małopolska. Lawsuits that arose from his various excesses and conflicts with neighbours eventually resulted in his sentence to exile, but the sentence was never enforced.