Jan Łodzia z Kępy

Jan Łodzia z Kępy was a Polish churchman born in Kępa, in Greater Poland, before 1300, and probably died in Poznań on 14 April 1346. He is remembered as a poet, although his figure is best understood within the ecclesiastical and political life of his time, as he held positions of responsibility in the diocese of Poznań.

His career advanced from the chancery, which he held in 1319, to the archdeaconry, in 1320–1321, and finally to the bishopric of Poznań from 1335. In that office he took an active part in the proceedings against the Knights of the Cross, especially in Warsaw in 1339, and he also took part in other significant political events of the period.

According to Jan Długosz, a fifteenth-century chronicler, confirmed by the Annals of Włocławek, Łodzia was a great enthusiast of both sacred and secular music, and he composed sequences and other liturgical works. Three sequences are securely attributed to him: In laudem sancti sacro presuli, Paule, doctor egregie and Salve, salutis ianua, along with the antiphon Lux clarescit in via, preserved in Polish manuscripts. Two other works cited by Długosz, Benedicta and Tu es Petrus, have so far not been identified.

His musical legacy is modest in volume but valuable as a testimony to medieval Polish liturgy. The surviving melodies were adapted to his texts, possibly by the poet himself.