Ad Honorem Immaculatae Conceptionis Mariae Oblatio

36 Congregation of Clerics Regular Marians under the title of the Immaculate Conception of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary was initiated in Poland by the Venerable Servant of God Stanislaus Papczyński (born in 1631, died in 1701). By the power of the indult issued by Pope Clement X, he [Fr. Stanislaus] left the ranks of the Congregation of the Piarists and started the creation of a new Congregation upon the consent of the Bishop of Poznan, Stefan Wierzbowski, who – with the permission of the Holy See and upon fulfilling all of the requirements of the law – founded the Congregation of Marians in 1679, as a community of simple vows. 4 From today’s perspective, the strong emphasis on – even the exagger- ation of – the Bishop’s role in the founding of our Congregation is quite astonishing. In the author’s opinion, the Bishop participated in every ef- fort made by Fr. Papczyński, who acted from the beginning in agreement and in accord with the Bishop. The Bishop expressed his consent ( episcopo annuente ) for S. Papczyński’s dedicating himself to this new task, while he [the Bishop] ensured the observance of the proper procedure and the reg- ulations of Church law, as well as making efforts to obtain the Holy See’s permissions ( licentia ), and ultimately, on the strength of the obtained per- missions, personally founded ( fundavit ) the new Congregation and defined its nature as an Institute of simple vows. These claims have little in com- mon with historical facts. Rather, they seem to be an attempt to tweak the facts to fit the concepts and requirements of the Church law of the day. The terminology itself is a reflection of Church law from the beginning of the 20 th Century and the existing ideas, shaped by this law, about the process of establishing a new congregation. The year 1670 appears twice in the title of the discussed work as the his- torical date of the Congregation’s origin ( origo ). However, the substance of the work was edited in such a way to make its reader think that everything that had happened in the years between 1670 and 1679 was just a prepa- ration for the moment of the formal installation of the Congregation by Bishop StefanWierzbowski, who actually founded ( fundavit ) the new Con- gregation, which happened only in 1679. To paint a complete picture, we 4 Ibid, 3: „Congregatio Clericorum Regularium Marianorum sub titulo Immaculatae Con- ceptionis Beatissimae Virginis Mariae initium habuit in Polonia a Venerabili Servo Dei Stanis- lao Papczynski (natus 1631, mortuus 1701), qui ex indulto Clementis Papae X anno 1670 ex castris Clericorum Regularium Scholarum Piarum discessit atque novae Congregationi fun- dandae operam dedit, annuente Stephana Wierzbowski, episcopo Posnanensi) qui ex licentia Sanctae Sedis Congregationem Marianorum servatis de iure servandis in votis simplicibus fundavit anna 1679” .