Ad Honorem Immaculatae Conceptionis Mariae Oblatio

17 not wish to make solemn religious vows. In FDR, St. Stanislaus Papczyński perceives his story as a spiritual journey and gives the witness of faith to it. In his biography of the Saint, written four years after his birth to heaven, M. Leporini sees these events in the same way. And there is no error here. He perceives it from a different point of view. Moreover, even assuming that the whole crisis was triggered by the causes described in the Apology , yet, thanks to his faith and God’s special gifts, St. Stanislaus Papczyński matures to a new vocation and discerns the new path that Divine Prov- idence is leading him on. In the end, he becomes that “unfit instrument [used by God] for founding the lowest and the smallest Congregation of the Fathers of the Blessed Virgin Mary Conceived without sin” (FDR 1). All this happened over the space of several years and we do not have access to the source documents of this period. Nor do we know when the “Divine vision” of the new community was “imprinted upon his soul” (FDR 6, 9). Certainly, it happened during his membership in the Piarists, 10 as evidenced primari- ly by the fact that the formula of vows had been written before he received the indult of departure and inserted in his Oblatio the main features of the new community, that is, its name, purpose, etc. By researching the oldest source materials, we re-discover, on the one hand, matters and things that have been forgotten or neglected in the past, and on the other hand, we sharpen our awareness of the present and future generations of the Congregation of Marian Fathers. The Oblatio is of particular importance here as the point of our Congregation’s origin, deliberately planned and carried out by St. Stanislaus Papczyński. This new cognizance, as it were, has found its reflection in the newest Consti- tutions. 10 C. Krzyżanowski makes no conjecture about the time of this mystical experience, but only states: “it is not known when God inspired him with this idea” ( Positio , p. 211). On the oth- er hand, T. Rogalewski, MIC, in his extensive biography of our Founder, based however on the Positio , ventures to say that it could have been “during the time of his incarceration in Podoliniec and Prievidza,” i.e. in the period from January 28 to March 22, 1669. Cf. T. Rogalewski, MIC, Stanislaus Papczyński (1631-1701). Founder of the Congregation of Marian Fathers and Inspirer of the Marian School of Spirituality , Stockbridge, 2001, p. 193.