Lumen 2018

(March 11, 1698 – May 18, 1699). 53 The Founder of the Marians would soon need this support. In the summer of 1698, Fr. Papczynski summoned a general chap- ter during which Fr. Joachim of St. Anne Kozlowski was elected Procurator General, with all necessary authorizations, and sent to Rome to resume negotiations. 54 In the fall of the same year, supplied with a letter of recommendation from Bishop Wierzbowski, he set out for the Eternal City in the company of Br. Anthony Cinski. Father Joachim obtained an audience with Pope Innocent XII and submitted the petition for approbation of the Congregation of Mar- ian Fathers. After all, the pope knew Fr. Papczynski, he was Papczyn- ski’s penitent when he stayed in Warsaw as the Apostolic Nuncio. Guided by kindness for his former confessor, he intended to approve the Congregation of Marian Fathers and their Rule of Life , but the cardinals, whose advice he sought, talked him out of it, citing the decree of the Fourth Lateran Council which forbade the approval of religious orders with rules other than those already approved. 55 Father Kozlowski was not discouraged by this negative answer. In January of 1699, he wrote a letter to Fr. Papczynski, in which he asked him to obtain support for his efforts in Rome from the various dignitaries (both lay and religious) in Poland. Father Papczynski ob- tained the requested letters of recommendation. 56 He had the ma- jority of them ready in March of 1699, so that Fr. Joachim received them in May. One of them, dated March 20 th , came from Bishop Wierzbowski and was a testimony to Fr. Papczynski’s and his com- panions’ virtuous lives in the Congregation. Father Joachim‘s advi- sors in Rome must have found these letters insufficient because, in June of the same year, Fr. Kozlowski asked for more letters of rec- ommendation. He received them in August. 57 The obtained petitions could be divided into two groups: those from Church authorities and those from civil authorities and private persons. Three requests survived from the first group: the request of Bishop Jerome Wierzbowski, Administrator of the Diocese of Poz- nan, 58 and two requests from Bishop George Denhoff. 59 The surviv- S TANISLAUS P APCZYNSKI 378