Lumen 2018

Plock, he was carried away by the waves of the Vistula River, on which he was sailing. Only by a miracle did he manage to avoid dan- ger. He had a similar accident in Jaroslaw in 1646, where he man- aged to escape unharmed from the whirls on the San River. 147 While he was a student in Rawa, he survived another dangerous adventure. He was vacationing at the seashore and was washed away by the waves, but everything ended well again. 148 It would seem that either he had the bad luck of being particularly “favored” by water cur- rents and diseases or, quite often, he simply did not realize the dan- gers that might threaten his health. But he always managed to escape unharmed. The Attributes of the Spirit After completing the studies of philosophy, the 23-year-old John Papczynski was a mature man and, for a lay man, fully formed spiri- tually. According to Sydry, who described him on the basis of surviv- ing portraits, 149 Papczynski was a “tall, slender young man, with a swarthy complexion, tall forehead and deep, pensive eyes gazing from under his eyebrows. Taking his difficult youth into consideration, we may suppose that he had the face of a man who had experienced more than might be surmised from his age, and that there was a luster in his eyes that inspired hope. At the same time he was a knowledge- able, gifted man; he had a quick mind and a rare oratory talent. “With God’s help, he continued to acquire knowledge, wrote speeches, cre- ated works of literature, composed poems, discussed issues so insight- fully that, even among the rich, he would be appreciated more for his talents than wealth.” 150 Yet, what made him stand out the most, were his spiritual attributes: he was a profoundly religious man, ca- pable of mortification, with a deep love for solitude and prayer. 151 When John Papczynski returned to Podegrodzie in June of 1654 after having completed his studies, he found only his mother at home. His father died around 1651, when Johnny was still studying in Lvov. 152 One can only imagine the joy with which his mother S TANISLAUS P APCZYNSKI 76