Jan Drabina

Jan Drabina was born on 13 October 1939 in Cieszyn, in the south of Silesia, the son of Jan Michal Drabina (1895-1977) and Maria Lucja Drabina, nee Raszka. He completed his secondary education in 1956 at the Antoni Osuchowski First Secondary School in Cieszyn.

He studied history at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow and received his master's degree in 1964. From 1964 to 1967 he served as a vicar at the parish of Divine Providence in the Zawodzie district of Katowice.

Drabina returned to scholarship in the late 1960s. In 1969 he defended his doctorate at the University of Silesia in Katowice, supervised by the medievalist Roman Heck. He obtained his habilitation in general medieval history at the Jagiellonian University in 1985 and was awarded the title of professor of humanities in 1993.

At the Jagiellonian University he headed the Department of the History of Christianity in the Institute of Religious Studies, part of the Faculty of Philosophy, and he later became a professor emeritus. His research focused on the history of Christianity, the history of religious denominations in Poland and the history of Upper Silesia, especially its towns in the late Middle Ages. He was also interested in diplomatic relations between Poland and the Holy See. He supervised doctoral students, among them Elzbieta Przybyl-Sadowska.

He was the author of more than 150 scholarly publications. They included "Kontakty Wroclawia z Rzymem w latach 1409-1517" (1981), "Idee koncyliaryzmu na Slasku" (1984), "Religie na ziemiach Polski i Litwy w sredniowieczu" (1989), "Zycie codzienne w miastach slaskich XIV i XV wieku" (1991), "Gorny Slask" (2002) and "Kontakty papiestwa z Polska w latach Schizmy Zachodniej 1378-1415" (2003). He also wrote or edited histories of Gliwice (1995), Chorzow (1998) and Tarnowskie Gory (2000).

His best known work was "Historia Bytomia 1254-2000" (2000), which became the standard history of the city, followed by "Historia Bytomia od sredniowiecza do wspolczesnosci 1123-2010". He was also editor and co-author of the Bytom Biographical Dictionary and wrote "Zycie codzienne w Bytomiu od lokacji do I wojny swiatowej 1254-1914" (2006).

From 1990 until his death Drabina was president of the Towarzystwo Milosnikow Bytomia, the Bytom Lovers' Society, which marked its 60th anniversary in 2026. Under his leadership the society published a long series of books on the city, including volumes on its districts, the secrets of its tenement houses, its cemeteries from the Middle Ages to the present, its historic monuments and its post-war history.

The society also organised the Bytom Organ Concerts and the Bytom Film Festival, presented new research, held history competitions for children and young people, and restored monuments in the city's Mater Dolorosa cemetery. Local journalists wrote that no one had done more to spread knowledge of Bytom's history.

Jan Drabina died on 14 October 2026, one day after his 87th birthday. His place and cause of death were not made public.

The death was announced the same day by the city of Bytom and by its mayor, Mariusz Wolosz, who wrote that he had received the news with great sorrow and that for many residents the professor's publications had been their first source of information about the city's history. He added that Drabina's initiatives to protect monuments and share the city's heritage had helped preserve the memory of the people who built Bytom. The city of Chorzow also paid tribute.

His funeral was scheduled for 9:30 on Tuesday 20 October 2026 at the Church of the Holy Spirit in Chorzow.

Drabina is remembered both as a scholar of medieval Christianity and as the historian who gave Bytom and its neighbouring towns their modern written histories. His "Historia Bytomia 1254-2000" is described by local press as essential reading for anyone interested in the city's past, and his histories of Chorzow, Gliwice and Tarnowskie Gory remain standard references for those towns.

His honours included the Juliusz Ligon Silesian Award (2001), the Wojciech Korfanty Award of the Upper Silesian Union (2005), the Gold Cross of Merit and the honorary badge Meritorious for Polish Culture (both 2012), honorary citizenship of Bytom (20 November 2008), the Bytom European Award (2015) and the Medal of the City of Bytom (2016).