Ad Honorem Immaculatae Conceptionis Mariae Oblatio

21 ostolic Nunciature, within the octave of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, I, already in the white colored [habit], devoted myself as a new candi- date of this Mother for everlasting service. And immediately, I went to the Most Distinguished Lord Angelo [Ranucci] the Nuncio in Warsaw to prove my obedience, to ask for his blessing and to reveal my desires. 8. All these matters at that time turned out favorably for me. For al- though admiration seized many on seeing me [turning] white from black, they even sang this from the Poet: “So suddenly the Swan who was just a raven”; however they were thus animated by the Divine Majesty, so that they even applauded this change, they highly praised [my] plan, and wished me a most hallowed success; [these] among the others [were] the Apostolic Nuncio himself, a certain Bishop, [some] well known Religious, although [there were] some [who] perceived [me] as crazy, some even persecuted [me], because it was necessary that these beginnings had to be founded on some suffering. – Granted that I am omitting other matters, I now come to the very beginning of the Tiny-Congregation, [recounting] what sort of beginning it was. 9. I lived at the house of the Lord Nobleman Karski for nearly two years as I was searching for the ways to begin the Society of the Immaculate Con- ception already formed in my mind by the Divine Spirit. But companions of the kind that a beginning of so great a work required, were wanting. And although some [candidates] presented themselves both from the laity and Religious, I was afraid to attach them to myself, first because their virtue did not appear evident, then because of the lack of a place [for the founda- tion]. 10. Also the Bishop of Poznan, although well-disposed to me, because he had been misinformed by someone, was entirely opposed to the establish- ment of a new Congregation in his Diocese, especially not having the con- sent of the Holy Apostolic See for it. I endeavored to deal with this problem of consent incessantly for two years and therefore, I endured many hard- ships, and I incurred some expenses. But because the agent was treacher- ous and crafty, who fed me with promises, not even trying to deal with the matter, therefore it pleased me to undertake the matter in a different way in accord with the counsel of a certain Pauline Religious, the Most Reverend in Christ Father Francis Wilga of the Camaldolese Order, Superior in the Kingdom of Poland, following the example of the Holy Founders, namely