Ignacy Jakub Massalski

{{Short description|Polish-Lithuanian nobleman}}

{{Infobox noble

| name = His Excellency
Ignacy Massalski

| image = Ignacy Massalski.PNG

| house-type = Szlachta

| noble family = Massalski

| CoA = Masalski 120px

| father = Michał Józef Massalski

| mother = Franciszka Ogińska

| birth_date = {{birth date|1726|7|30|df=y}}

| birth_place = Olekszczyce, Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth

| death_date = {{death date and age|1794|6|28|1726|7|30|df=y}}

| death_place = Warsaw, Crown of the Kingdom of Poland, Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth

| title = Prince Bishop of Vilnius

| full name =

}}

Prince Ignacy Massalski ({{langx|lt|Ignotas Jokūbas Masalskis}}) (1726–1794) was a Polish-Lithuanian nobleman.

Ignacy became a Catholic priest and was named Bishop of Vilnius by Pope Clement XIII on 29 March 1762.Hierarchia Catholica medii et recentioris aevi, v. VI, Patavii 1958, p. 442 {{in lang|la}} He was one of the initiators of the Commission for National Education. During his time on the commission, Massalski set up 300 parish schools.{{cite book|author=Daniel Stone|title=The Polish-Lithuanian State, 1386-1795|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LFgB_l4SdHAC&pg=PA314|accessdate=22 July 2012|year=2001|publisher=University of Washington Press|isbn=978-0-295-98093-5|page=314}}

In 1776 he was removed from the Commission{{cite book|author=Jerzy Lukowski|title=Disorderly Liberty: The Political Culture of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the Eighteenth Century|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kAgRHvulnnUC&pg=PA168|accessdate=22 July 2012|date=5 August 2010|publisher=Continuum International Publishing Group|isbn=978-1-4411-4812-4|page=168}} for embezzlement of public funds.{{cite book|author=Norman Davies|title=God's Playground: The origins to 1795|url=https://archive.org/details/godsplaygroundhi00norm_0|url-access=registration|accessdate=22 July 2012|date=30 March 2005|publisher=Columbia University Press|isbn=978-0-231-12817-9|pages=[https://archive.org/details/godsplaygroundhi00norm_0/page/397 397]}} He was succeeded as head of the commission by Michał Jerzy Poniatowski.

Image:Old Verkiai Palace.jpg, as commissioned by Masalski]]

He was a supporter of the Targowica Confederation and an opponent of the Kościuszko Uprising. As bishop, Massalski was opposed to the kidnapping and forcible conversion of Jewish children. He published a pastoral letter in 1783 condemning such practices.{{cite book|author=Gershon David Hundert|title=Jews in Poland-Lithuania in the Eighteenth Century: A Genealogy of Modernity|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=D9BNcKGBkVkC&pg=PA67|accessdate=22 July 2012|date=1 August 2006|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-24994-3|page=67}}

Massalski commissioned the reconstruction of the Vilnius Cathedral by Laurynas Gucevičius, which brought it to its present appearance.{{cite book|author=Saulius Sužiedėlis|title=Historical Dictionary of Lithuania|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VkGB1CSfIlEC&pg=PA185|accessdate=22 July 2012|date=7 February 2011|publisher=Scarecrow Press|isbn=978-0-8108-4914-3|page=185}} He became the owner of the Verkiai Palace in 1780 and organized its major reconstruction in the Neoclassical style, also by Gucevičius.

Accused of treason, he was hanged in Warsaw on 28 June 1794 by an angry mob in the aftermath of the Warsaw Uprising.