Lumen 2018

CHAPTER VI POSTHUMOUS CULT S PIRITUAL P ROFILE Now that we have become more familiar with the person of Fr. Stanislaus Papczynski, we are convinced that he was an extraordinary man. It seems that the spiritual work of many generations went into the making of his personality. Due to persistent effort and tremen- dous inner strength, the little shepherd became the founder of the first Polish clerical religious order. His life as a shepherd of souls and founder of a religious congregation, as well as his literary output, prove that he was a man of uncommon caliber. His collaborators and friends were prominent people, too. Many of them were scholars, saints, and the like. The most distinguished among them were: the Apostolic Nuncio, Francis Pignatelli (later Pope Innocent XII), King John III Sobieski, and Bishop Stephen Wierzbowski. The list also includes the Ordinary of Cracow, the Ordinary of Plock, the Ordi- nary of Chelm, other distinguished prelates, representatives of reli- gious orders, and famous personages, as for example, Christian Stanislaus Mirecki, Abbot of the monastery of the Holy Cross on Lysa Gora [Bald Mountain], Fr. Ambrose Skopowski, 1 a reformer of the Dominican Fathers, Fr. John Stanislaus Ligeza, Superior General of the Oratorians, Fr. Francis Wilga, Prior of the Camaldolese Monks, and many others. 2 The picture is completed by Fr. Papczynski’s rich spirituality, based on solid principles, as well as nourished and developed by all available means, even if they might have seemed difficult or unpleasant to human nature.