Lest You Remain

ple folk who lived in poverty and were deprived of any pastoral care. He also per- formed other works of mercy with regard to body and soul. God used him to free the people who came to him from various diseases and afflictions, and, as tradition maintains, often helped in a miraculous way those who were gravely ill. For those reasons, he was considered to be a saint even when he was still alive. He distinguished himself by humility, poverty, a spirit of mortification, and other virtues. It was also his concern to lead his confreres by word and example to the heights of perfection. In his book The Mystical Temple of God , he presented a way of pursuing holiness for lay people. Amidst various difficulties, he fulfilled the duties of Superior General and was the spiritual father of the Marian Institute, first at the Korabiew Forest (today Marian Forest, Puszcza Marianska), and then, from 1677 until his death, at a small monastery adjacent to the little Church of the Cenacle in Nowa Jerozolima (today Gora Kalwaria). In order to secure the legal status of his Congregation of the Immaculate Conception, he obtained papal approbation for it in 1699. He was the first Marian to make his profession of solemn vows on the Rule of the Ten Virtues of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Soon after, due to physical exhaustion, caused by his zealous apostolic work and constant mortification, he died in the opinion of sanc- tity on September 17, 1701. The beatification cause of the Servant of God Stanislaus was undertaken dur- ing the [information] process conducted in the years 1767-1769 at the Warsaw Curia. After the evidence collected during the process had been examined, a decree super scriptis of the Servant of God was issued in Rome in 1775. However, due to the lack of certain documents and sufficient information necessary to clarify some circumstances of his life, the cause was put on hold in the same year. In subsequent years (even though the fame of Fr. Stanislaus’s sanctity contin- ued), due to constant wars and persecutions suffered by the Church and by the Polish and Lithuanian nations, there were no favorable conditions to resume efforts in the matter. In 1918, Poland and Lithuania regained their independence, but the documents were dispersed in various archives, and there was not enough time to make appropriate preparations. Thus, the Marians were not able to resume the beat- ification process before World War II, either. It was only in 1953, after many pleas from the Marians and the faithful, and after work on the publication of Positio super Introductione Causae et super virtutibus of the Servant of God Stanislaus had begun, that the resumption of the cause became possible. In 1977, Positio was published and evaluated by historical consultants, and on March 6, 1981, the cause was introduced before the Apostolic See. In the years L EST Y OU R EMAIN W ITHOUT W ORK IN THE V INEYARD OF THE L ORD 98