The Star of Jakób Wróbel: A historical novel English-Polish edition

Born in Jasionka, Galicia, in 1860, Jakób Wróbel grew up beneath a sky crowded with stars. His fascination with astronomy became one thread in a life shaped by learning, faith, and an increasingly demanding sense of vocation.After studying in Jaslo and Kraków and entering the seminary in Przemyśl, Jakób became a priest, teacher, and advocate for the dignity of ordinary families. His path eventually led across the Atlantic to Paraná, Brazil, where Polish immigrants had settled amid forests, difficult roads, uncertain institutions, and deep cultural tensions.In Água Branca, Father Jakób helped complete a chapel, build a school, establish a cemetery, protect communal land, and strengthen a scattered Catholic community. He confronted drunkenness, superstition, political hostility, internal division, and the dangers that arise when faith, identity, and power become entangled.After nearly eighteen years in Brazil, he left for the United States and began again among Polish immigrant families in the coal towns of western Pennsylvania. There, he reopened schools, taught children, supported struggling households, and continued the quiet work of service until his death on Easter Sunday in 1935.The Star of Jakób Wróbel is a historical novel inspired by the life of a Polish priest whose journey crossed Poland, Brazil, and the United States. It is a story of education, migration, spiritual endurance, and the long influence of a life given to others.This bilingual edition presents the English and Polish texts together, paragraph by paragraph.