The Renewal of the Order redone 2018

The Renewal of the Marian Order in 1909-1910 8 Three libraries have been queried: the Archive of the Congregation of the Religious in the Vatican, the General Archive of the Marian Priests in Rome, and the Lithuanian State Archive in Vilnius, where the resources of the Marian monastery in Mariampole were deposited after they were seized by the Communists. Some of the documents have been printed in official publications related to the beatification process of Blessed Matulewicz. 1 We trust that the book will allow us to learn about and understand the Renewal of the Congregation of Marian Fathers while correcting much inaccurate information and false views. Abolition and an attempt to renew the Order legally The Congregation of Marian Fathers owes its foundation to Fr. Stanislaw Papczynski. Beginnings of the Institute go back to 1673. Stefan Wierzbowski, the Bishop of Poznan, approved it in 1679 as a diocesan congregation with simple vows; and in 1699 Pope Innocent XII agreed that the Marians would make solemn vows to the Rule of Emulation of the Ten Virtues of the Most Holy Virgin Mary, involving dependence on the Reformed Franciscans. 2 In 1723 Pope Innocent XIII approved the constitutions and the Order as exempt from the authority of the bishops. 3 Pope Pius VI in 1786 declared the Marians independent of the Franciscans and in the following year he con- firmed their reformed constitutions. 4 The peak of the Order’s growth was in the end of the eighteenth century. In 1781, it had 147 members. 5 The Marians were active in the multinational territories of the Polish Republic as well as in Portugal. 1 Documenta responsioni adnexa, pp. 28-51, 115-128, [in:] Positio . 2 Gorski, Tadeusz: Papczynski Jan , monastic name: Stanislaw of Jesus Maria (1631-1701), a Piarist monk, subsequently the founder of the Marian Order; a religious writer, [in:] PSB, XXV, pp. 159-161. 3 Jakimowicz, Boleslaw: Stabilizacja i rozwój zakonu w XVIII wieku [Stabilization and Growth of the Order in the 18th Century], [in:] Marianie , p. 40. 4 Ibid., p. 46. 5 Ibid., p. 48.