Marcjan Aleksander Ogiński (1632 – 5 January 1690 in Alovė, now Alytus district of

Lithuania Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...

) was a Polish-Lithuanian nobleman, a military commander and a statesman of the

Grand Duchy of Lithuania The Grand Duchy of Lithuania was a sovereign state in northeastern Europe that existed from the 13th century, succeeding the Kingdom of Lithuania, to the late 18th century, when the territory was suppressed during the 1795 Partitions of Poland, ...

in the

Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, also referred to as Poland–Lithuania or the First Polish Republic (), was a federation, federative real union between the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland, Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania ...

. He advanced to

colonel Colonel ( ; abbreviated as Col., Col, or COL) is a senior military Officer (armed forces), officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations. In the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, a colon ...

('' pulkownik'') in 1657, served as Voivod of Trakai (since 1670) and

Grand Chancellor of Lithuania The Grand Chancellor of Lithuania (Lithuanian language, Lithuanian: ''Lietuvos didysis kancleris'') was one of the highest Offices in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, offices in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The office functioned from the mid ...

(since 1684). He was the signatory of the

Eternal Peace Treaty of 1686 The Polish-Russian Peace Treaty of 1686, officially known as Treaty of Perpetual Peace , , but also known in Polish tradition Grzymułtowski Peace, ) was concluded between the Tsardom of Russia and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth to finally ...

with the

Tsardom of Russia The Tsardom of Russia, also known as the Tsardom of Moscow, was the centralized Russian state from the assumption of the title of tsar by Ivan the Terrible, Ivan IV in 1547 until the foundation of the Russian Empire by Peter the Great in 1721. ...

, on the side of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Since the Oginski's birth, he was Orthodox, and participated in the religious life of the church, being a member of the

Mogilev Mogilev (; , ), also transliterated as Mahilyow (, ), is a city in eastern Belarus. It is located on the Dnieper, Dnieper River, about from the Belarus–Russia border, border with Russia's Smolensk Oblast and from Bryansk Oblast. As of 2024, ...

and

Vilnius Vilnius ( , ) is the capital of and List of cities in Lithuania#Cities, largest city in Lithuania and the List of cities in the Baltic states by population, most-populous city in the Baltic states. The city's estimated January 2025 population w ...

Church fellowships. However, in the struggle for

Trakai Trakai (; see Trakai#Names and etymology, names section for alternative and historic names) is a city and lake resort in Lithuania. It lies west of Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania or just from the administrative limits of the Lithuanian capi ...

Voivodeship demanded of him transition from Orthodoxy to

Catholicism The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

Uniate Church The Eastern Catholic Churches or Oriental Catholic Churches, also known as the Eastern-Rite Catholic Churches, Eastern Rite Catholicism, or simply the Eastern Churches, are 23 Eastern Christian autonomous (''sui iuris'') particular churches of ...

, which he did in 1670 and became a commander. He initiated the establishment of

Dominicans Dominicans () also known as Quisqueyans () are an ethnic group, ethno-nationality, national people, a people of shared ancestry and culture, who have ancestral roots in the Dominican Republic. The Dominican ethnic group was born out of a fusio ...

in the Peninsula Castle of

, which was approved in 1678. Marcjan Aleksander Ogiński may be the subject of a much debated work, Rembrandt's ''

The Polish Rider '' The Polish Rider '' is a seventeenth-century painting by Rembrandt, usually dated to the 1650s, of a young man traveling on horseback through a murky landscape, now in The Frick Collection in New York City, New York. When the painting was sol ...

''. The image was painted at the time he was studying in the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

. It has been suggested that Ogiński had the portrait painted on the eve of his return to his

military unit Military organization ( AE) or military organisation ( BE) is the structuring of the armed forces of a state so as to offer such military capability as a national defense policy may require. Formal military organization tends to use hiera ...

during the devastating

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

invasions in the Deluge.Zygulski, Jr., Zdzislaw, ''Further Battles for the Lisowczyk (Polish Rider) by Rembrandt'', JSTOR, Vol. 21, No. 41. (2000), pp. 197-205.

References

External links

* http://www.wilanow-palac.art.pl/oginski_marcjan_aleksander.html Former Polish Orthodox Christians Converts to Eastern Catholicism from Eastern Orthodoxy Secular senators of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth Marcjan Aleksander Polish Eastern Catholics People from Alytus District Municipality 1690 deaths 1632 births Grand chancellors of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania Voivodes of Trakai {{Poland-noble-stub