George Matulaitis Journal

George later developed tuberculosis of the bone, incurable in those days. He suffered the burden of this illness throughout his entire life. Every attempt to alleviate it resulted in only temporary improvements of his health. In 1889, his cousin, a professor of classical languages, took him to Kielce and helped him to get his middle school certificate. In Kielce, the idea of becoming a priest matured in George. In 1891, he entered the Kielce seminary. When it was closed down, he transferred to the Warsaw seminary. George was one of the best students there, and so was sent to the Spiritual Academy [Theologate] in St. Petersburg, Russia, to con- tinue his studies. In 1898, he was ordained a priest, and a year later defend- ed his Master’s thesis, about the question of the universality of the Church. He then returned to his home diocese of Kielce. After a short time in parish work, he was forced by his recurring illness to seek medical treatment in Germany. He then continued his studies at the University of Fribourg (Switzerland), which he completed in 1902, with a doctoral degree in theol- ogy. During the following two years he worked as a teacher of Canon Law and Latin at the Kielce Seminary. After he moved to Warsaw, George became very involved in social and religious movements. Beginning in 1907, he was both a professor and the Vice-Rector of the St. Petersburg Academy. About the same time, he began the renewal and reform of the Marian religious order, which was dying out as a result of repressive measures of the Russian Czar’s government. Keeping in mind the new Code of Canon Law, as well as the changing social needs of his time, George adapted the inner life of the community and its apostolic service to the demands of the modern world. Its main goal, he wrote in its revised Constitutions, was a broad range of apostolic work: all to be chosen in light of the Church’s immediate needs and carried out using the best available means. In 1911, George was elected Superior General of the new Congregation. He founded a religious house in Chicago (U.S.A.), and later participated in establishing of a parish church and a religious house at Bielany, in Warsaw. He also founded at Bielany a Marian novitiate and an orphanage for 200 children. As time passed, this orphanage became a large educational facili- ty. In 1918, he went to Marijampole, where he re-established the deserted Marian religious house. In Marijampole, he also founded the Sisters of the 11