Lumen 2018

of the well-to-do, encouraging others to charity by his own example. In this manner, after the example of St. Paul, he became all things to all men, so that he might win them all for Christ. 31 As we sum up all these favorable testimonies, we should add that, in the opinion of his contemporaries who witnessed Fr. Papczynski’s life in Nowa Jerozolima, he lived a saintly life during his entire stay there, until the day he died, setting an example of heroism in prac- ticing the virtues. 32 Venerator of the Immaculate Virgin One of the characteristic features of Fr. Papczynski’s spirituality is his ardent love for the Most Holy Mother Immaculately Conceived. He grew up in the atmosphere of this love from early childhood. His love for the Blessed Mother continued to deepen, strengthen, and mature during the time of his studies at Jesuit and Piarist colleges. At that time, the Jesuits were spreading the idea of “Mary’s maternal bondage.” They also propagated the Sodality of Mary. The Piarists, too, attracted candidates as a congregation of venerators of the Blessed Mother. Therefore, young Papczynski, wishing to better serve Mary, decided to join that particular religious order. In 1670, when he confessed that he believed “in everything that the Holy Roman Church believes and what she gives us to believe,” his special act of faith included the truth about the Immaculate Con- ception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. He promised to spread and de- fend this truth even at the price of his own life. 33 The main idea that guided Fr. Papczynski as he founded the Con- gregation of Marian Fathers was to spread the cult of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The idea was expressed in the name of the institute which he intended to found. He declared his readiness to do so in his Oblatio of December 11, 1670. It was supposed to be an institute of the Immaculate Conception. At that time, he offered to “the Mother of God, the ever-Virgin Mary, con- S TANISLAUS P APCZYNSKI 424