Lumen 2018

his army managed to escape from the Polish trap at the junction of the Vistula and the San Rivers. 63 King John Casimir made his famous vows in Lvov on April 1, 1656. On that day, he pronounced the Blessed Mother the Patroness and Queen of the Polish Kingdom and promised on behalf of the nation that, after his victory over the Swedes, he would spread de- votion to her with all his power. He also made a solemn vow that, after peace had been restored in the country, he would work together with the representatives of other social strata to relieve the peasants in his kingdom from any unjust burdens and oppression. 64 Having made these solemn vows, King John Casimir led his army towards Warsaw. On May 6, 1656, the Polish-Lithuanian army began an attack whose purpose was to free the capital city. The Swedish general Wittenberg was forced to leave the walls of the Old Town. 65 In the heat of the fight, the Piarists saved themselves by es- caping and only Fr. Joseph Marci was left to keep watch over the monastery. But even he had to escape the same day because the Swedes, who wanted to prepare themselves better to make a foray outside the walls of the Old Town, burned many neighboring houses, including the Piarist monastery on Dluga Street. 66 The Vows We do not know exactly where Fr. Alexander Novari, Vicar- Provincial Superior, together with Stanislaus Papczynski and two or three other Piarists, stayed in May and June of 1656 after they had left the monastery. Since he could not continue his theological stud- ies, Stanislaus began to prepare himself with ever greater zeal for the profession of his religious vows. Two years had passed since he had begun his novitiate and he was eligible to make his religious profes- sion. 67 The Piarist Constitutions require that a candidate make a con- fession of his entire life 68 before he takes his religious vows. It is believed that it was then, in June of 1656, that Papczynski wrote his 109 At the Piarist Fathers