Lumen 2018

S TANISLAUS P APCZYNSKI 422 religious vows as a means to attain spiritual perfection, not only by making his own profession in 1656, but also by promising in his Oblatio to remain in religious vows till the end of his life. 17 In 1665, Fr. Hausenka, who had stayed at the same house with Fr. Papczynski for several years, wrote to Fr. Kraus that Fr. Stanislaus was a shining example of all the Christian virtues and was thereby like Fr. Franchi, who died in 1662, in the opinion of sanctity. 18 In 1667, the Superiors of various religious orders, with whom Fr. Papczynski remained in close contact, issued him certificates con- firming his exemplary religious life and saintliness. In the opinion of the Conventual Franciscan Friars, Fr. Papczynski was a model of the most sublime perfection at the Institute of the Piarist Fathers. 19 Fr. Wilga, Prior of the Camaldolese Monks, wrote that Fr. Papczynski was filled with the spirit of the Founder of his congregation (i.e., Joseph Calasantius) and became a solid pillar and an exceptional or- nament of his congregation in Poland. Fr. Wilga praised the beauty and the sublime nature of Fr. Stanislaus’s virtues and said that he lived a life worthy of a religious. 20 In 1670, Bishop Nicholas Oborski testified that Fr. Papczynski, as a member of the Congregation of the Piarist Fathers, distinguished himself by his righteous life and religious observance. As the Bishop of Cracow, he took Fr. Stanislaus under his protection because he lived an exemplary life. 21 Later, in 1671, the same bishop stated that, while Fr. Papczynski was in Cracow, he conducted himself impecca- bly and in a manner expected of a religious. 22 After he had left the Piarists, Fr. Papczynski declined the invita- tions that he received from various religious orders to join them, believing that, by doing so, he would not be able to attain the ideal of higher perfection that he aspired to. 23 But the main reason for his refusal was his fidelity to his vocation; he was to found a new re- ligious order. According to the witnesses in the Information Process, Fr. Pa- pczynski enjoyed the opinion of great sanctity not only among his