Ad Honorem Immaculatae Conceptionis Mariae Oblatio

28 J. Swiecicki on October 24, 1673 9 , which is commonly considered a docu- ment indicating the beginning of the Congregation (but if rightfully so?). Why is this date considered as the beginning of the new Congregation? What actually happened on that day? The accepted date: the visitation of the hermitage on October 24, 1673 On October 24, 1673, Bishop Stanislaw Jacek Swiecicki arrived at the hermitage in the Korabiew Forest to conduct a canonical visitation. At that time, three brother-hermits stayed in the hermitage along with Fr. Stanislaus Papczyński, who moved there a little less than a month before with the intention of founding the first Marian station. Two hermits did not belong to any religious institute and intended to join Fr. Papczyński’s Congregation. The then Superior of the hermits, cleric Stanislaus Krajew- ski, was accepted to the Marians by Fr. St. Papczyński on July 4, 1673, in Lubocza, where he made his religious promises ( Oblatio ) and received his white Marian habit. The Bishop’s visitation was very important for the future of the hermit- age. The hermits had already resided in the Forest for more than ten years 10 . Their life, however, was far from exemplary: they did not take much time for prayer and work, but mainly were busy with collecting money among the residents of the neighboring villages. Complaints against the hermits had reached the Bishop who intended to suppress the hermitage altogeth- er, or to radically reform it at least. Fr. St. Papczyński’s presence in the hermitage prompted the Bishop to choose the second option and it also made attaining of the visitation’s goal easy. The Bishop appointed Fr. St. Papczyński Superior of the hermits, forbade them to roam in the neigh- borhood and bound them with the observance of strict fasts, mortification, silence, prayer, and obedience to the prescripts of the Norm of Life and to the orders of the Superior. In this way the first Marian community was established. The protocol of the Bishop’s visitation is an official act of the Church authority, which attests to the existence of “the hermitage of the B.V.M. conceived without stain” and concedes an approval for the “institute of the above-mentioned 9 Ibid., p. 339ss. 10 Ibid., p. 333.