Father Casimir Wyszynski

A zealous and sincere manifestation of piety during the novi- tiate combined with his admonition of others did not make Casimir popular among his classmates. Some of them quickly formed the opinion that they were dealing with a superficial devotee and began to ridicule him. Casimir did not publicize the appearance of red liquid on the crucifix in his cell as something miraculous, which those persons who insidiously soiled it had hoped. It turned out that the perpetrators alone suffered ridicule. In this way they realized that Casimir’s pietywas not of amorbid sort as they had judged it to be. 291 After making his vows and receiving ordination to the priest- hood, Casimir began to show even greater concern for leading a life according to the religious Rule and the Marian charism, as well as living this life in the most disciplined way. Some of the confreres, who had lost a great deal of the religious spirit during the times of the “Rostkovian dispersion” and had become accus- tomed to laxity of lifestyle, regarded the advancement of their young confrere and his being entrusted withmore important of- fices, with dissatisfaction. Some of them even thought of getting rid of him permanently, but the Lord God showed him a way of rescuing himself: he went to Rome for a time. 292 Thus, we can see that the radical change in Father Casimir’s attitude towards the Marians and his desire to repair the bad ef- fects that his brother Joseph caused to the Order, found its justi- fication. The analogy with what happened to Saul on the road to Damascus as well as the BlessedMother’s identificationwith the Order of Marians founded by the holy Father Stanislaus, lead us to believe that Casimir was also enlightened in a special way about the Marian charism, because after joining the Community hewhole-heartedly focused on strengthening the observance and practice of the Rule and spreading devotion to the Immaculate Conception of the B.V.M. He is ready to give his life for this cause as Mary’s slave. 293 He also endeavored to make others more fer- 291 A. Fischer, Życie, cnoty i śmierć święta …, 56. 292 M. Wyszyński, Chcę naprawić … , 25; cf. P ositioWysz , 494 (Father Rychter’s testimony). 293 K. Wyszyński, Diariusz czynności …, 295. 190 W ACŁAW M AKOŚ , MIC