93 Apostolate or Contemplation: 1677-1723 through legal incorporation into the Order of Nuns of the Immaculate Conception.111 The document reads: “The superior penitent humbly begs Your Eminences once again to confirm and approve the mentioned Congregation, as well as to unite, incorporate, and join it (sic) with the Order […] Nuns, which was approved by Julius II.”112 The content of the request indicates that Fr. Papczyński decided to continue the matter of papal approval in accordance with the initiative taken the previous year in Rome. How much he cared about obtaining papal approval is further evidenced by another request, this time sent to Pope Innocent XII, “that by special grace and the authority of apostolic power he may deign to confirm and establish the mentioned Congregation, as well as unite, incorporate, and join it with the Order of the Nuns of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary.”113 The request was processed through official channels: it was turned over to the Congregation of Bishops and Religious, which then asked the Apostolic Nuncio in Poland for his opinion and information. The appropriate committee of the Congregation dealt with the matter based on the documentation collected in Poland and submitted to Rome. In 1694, Cardinal Leandro Colloredo sent Fr. Papczyński a negative reply, about which Fr. Stanislaus wrote in the introduction to the Rule of Life: “[…] The Most Reverend Cardinal replied that it would be sufficient for the Institute to obtain approval from the local ordinary and that the Rule of life, which had been carefully arranged and wisely amended by His Eminence, would suffice.”114 Consequently, “the letter has been presented to and accepted by the most distinguished and most venerable Bishop of Poznan [Jan Stanisław Witwicki], currently happily in office,”115 by Fr. Papczyński. The last words of the document suggest that the bishop approved of the legal status of the Marians, as indicated by the Holy See as sufficient, and did not support further efforts to obtain papal approval. Fr. Papczyński had 111 Positio, Papczyński, pp. 504-505, 515-517; S. Papczyński, Petition to the Holy Congregation for Bishops and Religious, Rome Aug. 22, 1692, in: Selected Writings, pp. 950-951. 112 S. Papczyński, Second Petition to the Congregation for Bishops and Religious, Rome Aug. 22, 1692, in: Selected Writings, pp. 954-955; Positio, Papczyński pp. 515-517. 113 S. Papczyński, Petition to the Holy Father Pope Innocent, Rome, Sept. 13, 1692, in: Selected Writings, pp. 957-958. 114 S. Papczyński, The Rule of Life, Informative Preface, 4, in: Selected Writings, p. 55. 115 Ibid.
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