Lumen 2018

59 Stanislaus Papczynski’s Childhood and Youth King Ladislaus, endowed with superior military talent, quickly gathered sizeable forces, freed Smolensk and forced, Michael Szein, the leader of the Muscovite army, to surrender. This was a moment of great triumph for the Republic of Poland, whose king also held the title of the Tsar of Muscovy, obtained on the basis of an agree- ment between the Russian boyars and Stanislaus Zolkiewski still dur- ing King Sigismund III Vasa’s reign. What a view it was when, on February 24, 1634, the brave Muscovite leader kowtowed before King Ladislaus IV while he, sitting high on his horse, looked tri- umphantly upon the seized banners and cannons, and on the repre- sentative of the Russian Tsar, who was now humbling himself before the Polish King. 78 Little Johnny, who was growing up in Podegrodzie, must have listened to the stories which were being told by the wanderers and which fired up his mind and lent wings to his imagination, thus form- ing him into an ardent patriot and a lover of the motherland. He would remain dedicated to her service in the field designated for him by Divine Providence. Papczynski lived during the time of Poland’s greatest territorial growth when people of different nationalities and religious denom- inations lived within its borders. King Ladislaus IV reigned over ter- ritory spanning almost one million square kilometers (990 thousand miles). At that time, a third nation, i.e., the Ukrainian nation, fought for its due place within the Republic of Two Nations. The issues as- sociated with the different religions, cultures, languages, and tradi- tions became so intertwined in Poland 79 that all of this together left a profound mark on the subsequent history of the country, the his- tory, which little Johnny Papka entered in Podegrodzie. The Sacrament of Maturity Papczynski received the Sacrament of Confirmation before the year 1646, prior to his departure from Podegrodzie at the age of fourteen. But no documents confirming this fact survived in the local