["The blessed Leon Szancer Scholarships Foundation for Poor Students of the Jagiellonian Academy Faculty of Medicine" and its founder]

The paper is devoted to a small but significant episode in the history of the 19th century philanthropy. It describes one of numerous scholarship foundations existing then and a person of its founder, Leon Szancer (1802-1879). The Szancer's Foundation was created for students of medicine of the Jagiellonian University and 25 persons used its help. Szancer himself was a representative of Poles of Mosaic religion. He had graduated from the Jagiellonian University and afterwards he worked as physician in the Army of the Congress Kingdom of Poland. He participated in the Polish November Insurrection and after its fall he emigrated. He was working in Opatów for many years and spent his last years of life in Krakow.