Lumen 2018

S TANISLAUS P APCZYNSKI 264 He ordered that all of them keep strict silence on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays. Each day, with the exception of Sundays and other holy days, pub- lic self-flagellation called discipline was to take place. Every Sunday, they were all to go to confession to their priest and piously come to the Lord’s Table. Each day, they were also supposed to spend time in mental or verbal prayer, to make an examination of conscience, and to have the readings read aloud during the meals. They were obliged to recite the Office of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary 67 together, the entire Rosary, the Office of the Dead, as well as to contemplate the Lord’s Passion daily and to read spiritual books. The hermits were to occupy themselves with honest work, accord- ing to the superior’s orders, and to share everything. They were to live in mutual love and silence and to avoid contact with lay people. They were all to wear tonsures and identical white habits. They were not allowed to grow a beard. The Visitator forbade the hermits to leave the cloistered space, to receive lay guests within the cloistered space, to conspire against the superiors, to keep money without the superior’s permission, to take possession of the things meant for common use, and to accept alms. All the hermits were to obey Fr. Papczynski, whom he ordered to stay there after the retreat was over. He appointed Fr. Stanislaus superior and granted him all the necessary authorizations, including the authority to reprimand, excommunicate, and grant dispensa- tions. 68 This is what Fr. Stanislaus wrote about this decree later: “The Visitator’s arrival and the regulations which he left were cer- tainly to my liking. Even though I had already written the Rule of Life and had it approved by the spiritual fathers, I gladly accepted [the bishop’s orders] and I try to follow them, even though, to a certain extent, they seem quite strict. But I strive for nothing else, but for the salvation of my soul, which everyone should hold above