Lumen 2018

cese from 1873, that name was Papiec. 35 In his article about Pode- grodzie written in 1887, Maciszewski uses the same spelling of the name, citing the aforementioned document as his source. 36 Leporini, who calls Thomas by the name Papczynski, probably made a guess that the son usually bore the family name of his father, which was indeed a commonly followed practice. However, in Fr. Stanislaus’s case, the matter looked a little bit different, because he changed his family name to Papczynski only when he went off to school. In the 17 th century, Poland’s peasants and artisans did not use family names ending in “ski.” Such names were used by the no- bility and assumed by those, for whom such a change of the last name was an expression of social promotion. 37 This is exactly what Fr. Pa- pczynski did. He may have also been motivated by his special friend- ship with John Papczynski, son of Albert Papczynski, a nobleman from Podegrodzie. 38 Wyszynski’s conviction that the family name of the father of the Founder of the Marians was Papka, was a result of his own research. In 1730, he visited Podegrodzie, inspected the parish records, and became familiar with the local oral tradition. 39 The information that can be found in the register of the clergy of the Diocese of Tarnow, according to which Thomas’s family name was Papiec, does not seem credible, for there was no possibility to verify it at that time — the register of baptisms in Podegrodzie had already been lost be- fore 1822. 40 According to the local lore, Thomas’s father traveled to Rome twice, and, since he talked a lot about the Eternal City and the pope, people nicknamed him the “Pope” [Pol. “Papiez”] or “Papka.” The latter version of his nickname passed onto his son Thomas. 41 Thomas Papka was a skillful blacksmith, sought after by people in the area. He hoped that some time in the future his younger son, John, would take over his smithy. He was also a farmer — he culti- vated the soil and raised cattle. For several years, he held the office of the mayor 42 of Podegrodzie and that of administrator of the parish 53 Stanislaus Papczynski’s Childhood and Youth