24 God’s heralds, but the deed of a great man. Then, being aware of your worthlessness and wickedness, give thanks to God, that He has called you along with other better people to the religious state (which is like the apostolic state), (IC, p. 230 of the proofed copy). Father Papczyński did not compare himself to the apostles in his role as the founder of a new religious community, but in connection with his vocation to the religious order, which he considered the greatest grace of God, after baptismal affiliation. It is for this reason that, after being exempted from simple vows in the Piarist Order, he immediately made the socalled Oblatio. Here is the account of this event: “[...] Divine Majesty suggested to me, immediately before being released – such that, when I be released from them – that I freely bind, in the very same act, myself to God by other [vows], which I performed through the offering of myself [Oblatio], which I recited from my heart in public, although it was made in a rather quiet voice. […] same father, who granted me the release [from vows] in the name of the General, confirmed [this Oblatio] with the acclamation: ‘May God confirm what He has wrought in you!’”2 From that moment on, St. Stanislaus Papczyński lived outside a religious community for over two years, which only amplified his desire for this way of life. The charism, prompting him to form a new congregation, was combined with the desire for further striving on the path of the evangelical counsels. He would conclude this period of loneliness, waiting and trials with a rhetorical conclusion, referring to the plan of Divine Providence: Indeed, He strengthened it. He was so firmly convinced of God’s predominant role in the emergence of the Marian Order that he made the following remark in his testament, as if revoking his title of founder: “I most devoutly entrust this tiny Congregation forever to my Lord, Jesus Christ, and to the Most elect Virgin, His Mother Mary, as the true and only Founders, Directors, Protectors and Patrons of this tiny Congregation of the Immaculate Conception, Helper of the Deceased.”3 The second dimension of the Founder’s Passover is his participation in the dramatic history of the community’s shaping and the need for a 2 Ibid, p. 902. 3 Saint St. Papczyński, Second Testament, in Selected Writings, p. 935.
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