Lumen 2018

At the Jesuit College As you may recall, Johnny Papczynski had to interrupt his studies in Podoliniec due to an approaching epidemic. When the epidemic was over, he did not return to continue in the next grade called po- etics, even though such a course had been offered at that school since 1648, but, instead, in June of 1650, went to Lvov again. 141 This time he was gladly admitted by the Jesuits to their college. Within a year, he completed a course of poetics and began a course of rhetoric in 1651. But he did not finish it in Lvov because classes at the Jesuit College were suspended when the Cossacks got very close to Lvov, after they had defeated the Polish army at Batoh. Together, with other students, Johnny left the city and went to a Jesuit college in Rawa Mazowiecka. 142 There he finished the course of rhetoric and studied philosophy 143 for the next two years. During the time of his studies in Rawa he fell ill again. He was spending his fall break in Raszyn, when he suddenly came down with a high fever, with which he had to struggle for quite some time. He did ultimately recuperate, which, according to Leporini, was a proof of the Most Holy Virgin Mary’s miraculous protection ( mira protectione ). 144 Later, he fell gravely ill one more time and was, again, miracu- lously saved, after he had vowed to make a pilgrimage to Czesto- chowa. 145 It may be surprising to us today, that a young man, who grew up in such close contact with nature, would get ill so often. It is difficult to understand that people in the 17 th century often fell ill and lived so short a life. For the people of today, health is a rule while illness is an exception to it. But, in those times, it was quite different. People succumbed to gout, to diseases of the skin, the eye, and many others. One must also take into account the kind of devastation in people’s health that was caused by the frequent outbreaks of various epi- demics in those times. Both the people who lived in peasant huts as well as those who lived at royal courts would become ill. 146 During his studies in Rawa Mazowiecka, Papczynski experienced God’s protection in yet another way. While he was on vacation near 75 Stanislaus Papczynski’s Childhood and Youth