Ad Honorem Immaculatae Conceptionis Mariae Oblatio

32 of the Marians, and such was the act of installation of the Congregation, issued by Bishop S. Wierzbowski. From the legal point of view, all actions, which preceded this act, were only expressions of Divine inspiration and intentions or simply a prudent preparation for the intended cause. On the other hand, ascribing real meaning to them could be easily recognized as usurpation, should the founder of the religious institute dare to act with- out obtaining prior permission and blessing from the Church authority. Consequently, only the Church authority’s decisions had real meaning, whereas the actions of the founder himself had, on the whole, a secondary or minor meaning: they were an addition and implementation of the deci- sions taken by the authority. The same juridical principle was probably at the basis of the affirmations made by Fr. Stefan Sydry, author of the biography of the Founder. In the act performed by Fr. S. Papczyński on December 11, 1670, and in all that hap- pened immediately after it, Fr. S. Sydry sees: “calling of the Lord to the new undertaking” and “preparatory operations” 21 . In the oblatio of Fr. S. Pap- czyński Fr. Sydry does not perceive an act of self offering as it results clearly from its contents, but an act by which the Congregation is offered, the act in which Fr. Founder dedicated his Institute (the Congregationwhich he intend- ed to found) to God and His Mother 22 . In my opinion, such an interpretation is very beautiful and sublime, but unfortunately not very faithful to the mind of Fr. Founder, who believed that by way of his oblatio , he became at once a Marian. Fr. S. Sydry did not follow however the opinion of Fr. Renovator in the question of determining the year 1679 as the date of the origin of the Congregation. He recognized October 24, 1673, as the date of the erection of the Congregation, which was the date of the Bishop’s visitation that defined the character of the hermitage in the Korabiew Forest 23 . The Bishop’s visita- tion, as well as the subsequent installation decree of Bishop S. Wierzbowski, was the first act of the Church authority regarding the nascent Congregation. The protocol written after the visitation was the first official Church docu- ment which speaks about the new Congregation. The juridical principle affirming that only Church authority may found a new Congregation was kept also in this case, and the actions of Fr. S. Pap- 21 Sydry Stefan, O. Stanislaw Papczyński jego dzieło , Warsaw 1937, pp. 68 and 72. 22 Ibid., p. 68s. 23 Ibid., p. 80s, where he writes about the foundation of the Congregation of the Marians in 1673; but the canonical erection of the Congregation took place according to Fr. S. Sydry in 1679; cf. ibid., p. 157.