Ad Honorem Immaculatae Conceptionis Mariae Oblatio

29 religious priest, Father Stanislaus.” 11 The protocol of the visitation also fore- sees an influx of candidates to the Congregation, an election of the Superi- or, when there are already at least 12 members with an active and passive voice, and threatens with severe punishments those who would lawlessly abandon “this Congregation of Marian Clerics.” Thus, this was, in a way, the first approval of the Congregation on the diocesan level. Episcopal and papal approval However, the visitation of the Korabiew Forest hermitage was not a for- mal approval of the new Congregation in the Church performed according to the requirements of the standing law of the time. It is eloquently sup- ported by the fact that Fr. St. Papczyński was constantly seeking to obtain such an approval and received it in the form of a Bishop’s decree issued on April 21, 1679 12 . At that time the Marians already had two stations, both located within the Poznan diocese. To the Korabiew Forest hermitage they added another station – the Cenacle of the Lord in Gora Kalwaria, which Bp. St. Wierzbowski gave to them in 1677. However, the canonical instal- lation of the Congregation of Marian Fathers under diocesan law did not provide sufficient security for this new religious community, because it made it very much subordinated to the local Ordinary. During the lifetime of Bishop St. Wierzbowski, who was benevolent to the Marians, the Con- gregation enjoyed his assured protection. However, after the death of their patron, a bishop less benevolent toward Marians took over, and the Con- gregation faced a threat of suppression, because of accusations brought up by its enemies, to whom the bishop was lending his ear. 13 Therefore it had become vital to obtain papal approval. The story of how the approval was obtained is quite complicated and long; and the answer to the question, when the Marians finally became an Order of papal right is not at all easy. Therefore, I purposely omit here the matter of establishing a date, which can be recognized as the end of the Congregation’s founding process 14 . 11 Ibid., p. 342ss. 12 Ibid., p. 392ss. 13 Ibid., p. 504s. 14 It would be difficult to recognize the Pope’s letter of November 24, 1699, directed to the Nuncio in Poland, as a papal approval of the new Order. As a matter of fact, the letter states only the fact of the aggregation of the Congregation of Marians into the Order of the Franciscans and the consequences that follow from this fact. The letter carefully avoids using any wording that