Lumen 2018

tion could obtain papal approbation, if it chose an already approved rule. 71 The most known among them were the rules of St. Basil, St. Augustine, St. Benedict, and St. Francis. Such a suggestion is rather amazing, if we consider the fact that Norma Vitae of 1694/98 already contained a promise to observe the Rule of St. Augustine. 72 Even Bishop Jerome Wierzbowski, in his petition to the Holy See of March 20, 1699, mentioned twice that the Marian Constitutions ( Norma Vitae ) are consistent with the Rule of St. Augustine. 73 It would seem that the Marians had already chosen a religious rule approved by the Church. Why, then, were they being asked to do what they had already done? The issue is explained by Fr. Wyszynski’s remark when he wrote that Fr. Papczynski did not choose any rule in 1699 and wanted to obtain papal approbation for his Congregation only on the basis of the Rule of Life . 74 It can be, therefore, concluded that the version of Norma Vitae presented to the Holy See by Fr. Joachim was the one which was published in 1687, and in which nothing was said about the Rule of St. Augustine. Father Stanislaus hoped that his Procurator General would be able to obtain papal approbation on the basis of the Rule of Life (accepted as “Regula-Constitutiones”), i.e., without the necessity to accept any other rule already approved by the Church and without the necessity to be incorporated into an already existing religious order. This was what happened with the Jesuits and the Piarists. Father Kozlowski was unable to follow that path and, in order to fulfill his mission, he had to chose some rule that had already been approved and be satisfied with the Marians being incorporated into an already existing religious order. 75 So, he chose the Franciscan Order whose spirituality seemed similar to the spirituality of the Mar- ians. At first, he even thought about adopting the Rule of St. Francis, but later, following the advice of Fr. Francis Diaz, a Franciscan, he chose the Rule of the Ten Virtues of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which had already been adapted to the needs of religious institutes of men. 76 S TANISLAUS P APCZYNSKI 382