Jerzy Franciszek Kulczycki

Jerzy Franciszek Kulczycki , was a nobleman of the Sas coat of arms, by modern Ukrainian authors referred to as Polonized Ruthenian nobleman, though according to period sources Kulczycki considered himself a native Pole from the royal Polish free city of Sambor. For his actions at the 1683 Battle of Vienna when he managed to get out of the besieged city to seek help, he was considered a hero by the people of Vienna. According to a legend which appeared 1783 he is often recited as starting the first caf in the city, using coffee beans left by the retreating Ottoman Turks. However, more recent sources prove that the first coffehouse in Vienna was opened by the Armenian Johannes Theodat in 1685.

Kulczycki was born in 1640 in Kulczyce, near Sambor, . According to modern Ukrainian authors, he was born into an old OrthodoxRuthenian noble family, KulchytskyShelestovich, although his father had converted to Catholicism, the state religion of the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland. As a young man, Kulczycki joined the Zaporozhian Cossacks during which time he demonstrated a gift for languages and worked as an interpreter. He probably came from the Polonized Roman Catholic line of the originally Ruthenian Klczycki family from Kulczyce village near Sambor, very likely the noble part of the family bearing the Lis coat of arms. Nevertheless, Kulczyckis nationality was frequently questioned and still are not clear. Ukrainian scholars consider him an Orthodox Ukrainian, a Zaporizhian Captured by the Turks, he was bought by Serbian merchants who needed a translator. He is considered as Polish by Kulczyckis descendant, historian, political scientist and genealogy researcher, member of the Poli

Source: Wikipedia