Lumen 2018

“In the name of Our Lord Jesus Christ Crucifed. Amen. I, Stanis- laus of Jesus Mary Papczynski … offer and consecrate to God the Father Almighty, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and likewise to the Mother of God, the ever-Virgin Mary, conceived without sin, my heart, my soul … my body, leaving for myself absolutely nothing , so that henceforth I may be the servant of the Omnipotent [God] and the Most Blessed Virgin Mary. Consequently, I vow to serve Them zealously, in chastity, to the end of my life, in the Society of Marian Clerics of the Immaculate Conception (which by the grace of God I vow to found).” 214 Then he added a vow of obedience and religious poverty and made a profession of faith which included the so-called “vow of blood,” whereby he promised to spread the honor of the Immacu- lately Conceived Virgin Mary and to defend her “even at the cost of his own life.” He concluded with the words: “So help me God and this Holy Book of the Gospels.” 215 At that moment, Fr. Kraus said to Fr. Stanislaus: “May God confirm that which He has brought about in you.” 216 From then on, Fr. Stanislaus was to support himself from a Church benefice promised to him by the bishop and the two semi- narians from their own patrimonies. 217 The date of December 11, 1670, given by Kraus, i.e., the day on which Fr. Papczynski finally left the Congregation of the Piarist Fa- thers, is accepted as the date of his final parting with the Piarists. 218 In writing his account, Fr. Kraus probably relied not only on his memory, but also on his notes, and on the appropriate documents kept in the provincial archives in Podoliniec. 219 The benefice promised by the Bishop of Cracow, from which Fr. Papczynski was to support himself after he had left the Piarist Fathers, was the office of a chaplain to the Archconfraternity of the Immac- ulate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary at the Church of St. James in Kazimierz. In February of 1671, Fr. Stanislaus was listed as the chaplain to this very confraternity. 220 He had a few other options 207 At the Crossroads