Lumen 2018

Poland], the use of alpenstocks was forbidden since 1620 under the penalty of a fine, but there were two kinds of alpenstocks: one was a weapon shaped like a small axe with a short wooden handle and used by the Polish and Hungarian cavalry, the other was a kind of a walking stick with a metal head finished with a blade on one side and a spike on the other, used by mountain climbers to cut steps in steep ice or snow or as a belay. (Cf. En- cyklopedia Powszechna PWN ). It is most likely this second kind of alpenstock that young Papczynski took with him as he set out for Podoliniec. 26. “... Fr. Stanislaus a Jesu Maria, qui haec infra scripta secum tulit. Vestem duplicem ex panno leviori, caligas, par calceorum, cin- gulum, frameam, mitram, Virgilium, Claudianum, Thomam a Kempis, idiomate Polonico, Subucularum duo paria, pecuniam florentinum 27.” From the record of Stanislaus Papczynski’s investiture at the beginning of his novitiate, July 2, 1654. Po- sitio 35. 27. John Franco was born in Rome in 1596. Various documents give a Latinized form of his last name, i.e., “Francus.” It corresponds most likely to the Italian “Franco.” Some other sources call him “Franchi.” He joined the Piarist Fathers in 1624 and had the good fortune to find himself under the supervision and guidance of the Founder of the Piarists himself — St. Joseph Calasantius. Towards the first year of his novitiate, he was ordained to the priesthood (according to some other accounts, he was already a priest when he joined the Piarists). In 1626, he made a solemn religious profession. Later he occupied various offices in the con- gregation, both academic and administrative. He was the first Provincial Superior of the Sicilian Province which was established in 1639. In 1641, he became Rector and Novice Master in Leip- nik in Bohemia. In 1642, the war forced him to move together with the novices to a new house in Podoliniec, where he worked till the end of his life, first as Rector and Novice Master (1642- 1659), then as Provincial Superior of the German-Polish S TANISLAUS P APCZYNSKI 142