MARIANS IN 1670-1788 56 Marians. A crucial testimony on this matter came from Sister Otolia, a Dominican nun who was a penitent of Fr. Stanislaus and had known him personally for many years: “Attracted by the fame of his holiness, many troubled people in need of spiritual assistance came to him for salvific counsel and departed, having received desired spiritual benefits.”4 Stefan Sydry wrote about the tremendous impact of Fr. Papczyński’s sanctity: “The repute of his actions drew the attention of Stefan Wierzbowski, the bishop of the diocese of Poznan, who decided to employ that hermit’s extraordinary qualities for his own projects”5 and invited Papczyński to New Jerusalem. We have testimonies ex auditu of six witnesses who took part in the information gathering process conducted in 1767-1779 when they spoke about the life, virtues, and sanctity of Fr. Stanislaus and declared that his holiness was precisely the main motive that inspired Bishop Wierzbowski to invite him and the Marians to settle at the Passion Sanctuary complex, which was then emerging in New Jerusalem.6 The second stimulus promoting the growth of the Order was the approval of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth’s Sejm, granted in 1677 to the Marian foundation in the Korabiew Forest and thus to the entire Order. It read: “We approve the foundation [called] Domus Recollectionis Clericorum BVM sine macula conceptae [...] established in the Korabiew Forest, […] and we take this Congregation under ours and the Commonwealth’s perpetual protection”.7 The growing community of Marian Fathers in the Forest and the legal approval of the Congregation allowed the Marian Fathers to undertake new pastoral work in the sanctuary in New Jerusalem. They were invited there by Bishop Stefan Wierzbowski. Fr. Stanislaus Papczyński was known to Bishop Wierzbowski for many years, even when he worked as a Piarist in Warsaw and carried out apostolic work in the bishop’s diocese throughout Mazovia. The bishop highly valued his apostolic zeal and his ascetic and saintly 4 S. Sydry, O. Stanisław, p. 123. 5 Ibid, p. 144. 6 Summarium super dubio..., [Romae 1771]; cf. Animadversiones fidei promotoris super dubio in casu beatificationis et canonisationis servi Dei Stanislai Papczynski, 1775, Poznań [ca. 1960]. 7 Aprobacya Fundacyi Pustelników w Puszczy Korabiewskiej, in: Volumina Legum, przedruk Zbioru Praw staraniem XX. Pijarów w Warszawie od r. 1732 do r. 1782 wydanego, [Collection of Law documents from 1732 to 1782 re-printed and publiched through efforst of the Piarist Fathers] vol. V, Petersburg 1860, p. 241 a, n. 118.
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