Lumen 2018

S TANISLAUS P APCZYNSKI 248 Therefore, the fact that the authorities of the Diocese of Cracow withdrew their support, might have given Fr. Papczynski the thought that he may have misinterpreted the divinam visionem regarding the foundation of a new religious order. If so, a return to the Piarists was the only alternative, for Fr. Stanislaus could not imagine himself living a life other than that of a religious. Their refusal would mean that he was to continue his efforts to found a new congregation — perhaps with the help and support of the authorities of another diocese. 7 The Piarists had no doubts that their only answer to Fr. Papczyn- ski’s petition was to refuse it. They may have cited a decision made by one of their general chapters during which a decree de non re-ad- mittendis egressis (i.e., about not accepting those who had left the congregation) was issued. Such an answer was verbally conveyed to Fr. Stanislaus by the delegates of the Polish Province after their return from the chapter towards the end of January 1671. 8 At the Karskis in Lubocza After his application to be accepted back into the Piarist Order had been refused, Fr. Stanislaus had no doubts regarding his calling to be the founder of a new religious congregation and made a firm decision to follow this path. However, since he saw no possibility of putting his plan into effect in the Diocese of Cracow, he left (in the summer of 1671) for Mazovia to place himself under the protection of Stephen Wierzbowski, the Bishop of Poznan (1663-1687), 9 who had promised to help him. For a little while, he stayed in Warsaw, probably in the home of John Gembicki, the Bishop of Plock, who offered him the office of a canon at the cathedral in Plock and asked him to be his confessor. Many other religious orders invited him to join them. He did not accept these offers, for he was consumed with one thought — to found a religious order in honor of the Immacu- late Virgin Mary. 10 The meeting with Bishop Wierzbowski took place in Warsaw, where the Ordinary of Poznan had his permanent residence, as War-