Aleksander Kakowski

Aleksander Kakowski (February 5, 1862–December 30, 1938) was a Polish politician and member of the Regency Council, and as Cardinal Archbishop of Warsaw was the last titular Primate of the Kingdom of Poland, before Poland regained its independence in 1918.

Aleksander Kakowski was born February 5, 1862, in Dębiny near Przasnysz, the son of Francis Kakowski and Paulina Dolega-Ossowski. He was ordained a priest on May 30, 1886, in Warsaw, by Cardinal Wincenty Chościak-Popiel. The following year he became one of the professors at the Warsaw Theological Seminary. In 1910 he became Rector of the Saint Petersburg Roman Catholic Theological Academy and on July 22, 1913, he was ordained a bishop by Stanisław Zdzitowiecki. On September 14, 1913, he became the archbishop of Warsaw in St. John's Cathedral, thus becoming the titular primate of the Kingdom of Poland.

After the outbreak of the Great War he remained in Warsaw and in 1917 Kakowski was appointed to be a member of the Regency Council, a semi-independent and temporary highest authority of the Kingdom of Poland, recreated by the Central Powers as part of their Mitteleuropa plan. Kakowski was one of three members of that body, which served as a provisional head of state (hence the word "regency" in its name).

On November 28, 1919, he was the main consecrator of Achille Ratti, the papal nuncio to Poland who later became Pope Pius XI. On December 15 of the same year, Kakowski himself was made a cardinal. During his service as the Archbishop of Warsaw, Kakowski promoted the creation of a strong Catholic press. He was one of the authors of the success of Rycerz Niepokalanej, which was one of the most popular newspapers in pre-war Poland. He was also the main creator of the theological faculty at the Warsaw University and of the Catholic Action movement. For his role in liberating Poland from foreign occupation, in 1925 Kakowski was awarded the Order of the White Eagle, the highest Polish decoration (and in July 1938 he even briefly appeared as the head of that order's chapter). In 1930 he also became a "bailiff of honour and devotion" of the Order of St John of Jerusalem. His successor August Hlond was to reintroduce the title of Primate of Poland after the Second World War, but Kakowski continued to style himself Primate of the Kingdom of Poland until his death on December 30, 1938.