Lumen 2018

S TANISLAUS P APCZYNSKI 372 tion was justified by a declaration that he had obtained from the Pen- itentiary in Rome as early as 1691. 33 The only achievement of Fr. Stanislaus’s prolonged efforts was the authoritative statement by the Sacred Congregation that the Ordi- nary’s approbation was sufficient for the Marians. Father Papczynski referred to this statement in Praefatio Informatoria to the Rule of Life and argued that, contrary to the claims made by the enemies of the Congregation of Marian Fathers, his Congregation did not need approbation by the Holy See to be able to exist as a legal entity. But this still did not satisfy him. Soon he would make yet another attempt at obtaining approbation from the Holy See for his Congregation. Penitent and Apostle After he had regained his health, Fr. Papczynski resumed his usual duties with renewed enthusiasm. He continued to proclaim the word of God without rest, heard confessions, consoled the sad, supported the poor and needy, encouraged people to piety and to imitating the Blessed Mother. He often left the Cenacle and went alone, or with a companion, or a group of the faithful, to visit the holy places of Nowa Jerozolima. He never stopped praying to God for the Church, for the souls suffering in Purgatory, and, by his own example and teaching, he showed his confreres the true path to heaven. 34 Even though Fr. Papczynski had always led a very intense spiritual life, he fulfilled his pious practices and contemplated God’s perfec- tion with even greater intensity after he had regained his health. His humility was so deep that he considered himself to be nothing — simply a great sinner. In the spirit of penance, he practiced restraint in eating and drinking, taking only barley bread and water on the days not covered by dispensation. In order to subdue the body to the spirit, he mortified it by using iron chainlets, always wearing a hair shirt and performing self-flagellation three times a day. He slept only several hours each night on the ground with a piece of hard wood under his head. He wore a shirt made of a raw fabric. His