Lumen 2018

Return to Warsaw Three months had passed since Fr. Stanislaus arrived in Nicolsburg and the promised permission from the Superior General to return to Poland still had not come. At that point, Fr. Papczynski asked Fr. Charles of St. Mary Pessau, Provincial Superior of the German Province, 77 for permission to go to Poland to collect his writings that he had left at the Warsaw monastery. 78 In this situation, Fr. Pessau allowed Fr. Stanislaus to make this journey. Based on what Kraus wrote as well as on some statements made by Papczynski himself, it can be surmised that he was given permission to leave “for a certain period of time” and not for good. Father Stanislaus set out for Poland at the beginning of May 1668, and promised to return to Nicolsburg as soon as he had settled his affairs in Warsaw. 79 He wrote later in his Apology that had it not been for the German Provincial Superior’s permission, which was granted to him by God’s decree, he would have never seen Poland again, which some of his adver- saries were predicting as they sneered at him during his absence. 80 In the middle of May 1668, Papczynski arrived in Cracow having covered the distance of about 320 kilometers. In Cracow, he stayed at Kazimierz, from where he wrote to the Provincial Superior, Fr. Opatowski, to inform him about his arrival and his intention to go to Warsaw for a period of one month or as many months as will be pleasing to God. 81 He arrived in Warsaw as early as May 26 th . Within a period of time shorter than a week, he covered the distance of al- most 300 kilometers and reached the Piarist house during a Holy Mass in honor of St. Philip Neri, around eight o’clock in the morn- ing. The next day, in order to collect his thoughts and spirit dis- tracted by the hardships of his journey, he went to Lowicz (80 kilometers away fromWarsaw), where the Piarists had opened a new house on May 10, 1668. 82 When the Provincial Superior, Fr. Opatowski received Fr. Pa- pczynski’s letter with the news of his return, he immediately set out for Warsaw, hoping to either find Papczynski still in Cracow or to 177 At the Crossroads