Lumen 2018

S TANISLAUS P APCZYNSKI 400 made the last canonical visitation of the house at the Korabiew Forest at that time. 120 In August of 1701, Fr. Papczynski was afflicted by another serious illness which proved fatal. The illness violently ravaged his body. The Founder of the Marians knew that he was getting closer to the gates of eternity. Consumed by fever, he remained coherent and lucid till the very end. When his suffering intensified, he would say, as was his custom, “Increase, O Lord, my sufferings, that You may diminish the punishment of the souls in Purgatory.” On September 17, 1701, the small group of Marians at the Ce- nacle, Fr. Stanislaus’s spiritual sons, gathered around his bed. Fully aware and with great humility, he received the Holy Sacraments from the hands of Fr. Joseph of All Saints, the first priest ordained in the Congregation. But let us see what Fr. Wyszynski wrote about this unique moment: “As he had nothing more in common with this world, he only sighed for the Heavenly Home, for the undeserved crown, just as the great jubilee that was celebrated at that time came to an end. Sensing the approaching death, he made his last confession and asked for the Viaticum. After receiving it with great reverence, he asked to be anointed, and received the anointing with the same reverence. Wishing to be separated from this world and to be with Christ, in the presence of his confreres (to whom he gave his last blessing), in an inexpressible yearning of the heart and an outburst of piety, amidst prayerful sighs, weak in body, but with a clear mind, grasping the crucifix, he peacefully gave up his soul to God.” 121 Leporini, too, wrote that Fr. Stanislaus of Jesus Mary Papczynski gave up his soul to God, as he grasped and kissed his crucifix, on the feast of the Stigmata of St. Francis, i.e., September 17, 1701, in the evening, as the sun faded and disappeared below the horizon. 122 His last words that could be heard by those gathered around him were the words of the Psalm, which is the prayer of a man tormented