The Renewal of the Order redone 2018

9 Introduction They also had a house in Rome. Their work was pastoral, especially among the simple people. They ran schools and they propagated the veneration of the Holy Mother of Immaculate Conception. They prayed for the dead. Because of unfavorable political conditions, the Order began to decline. In 1798, Napoleon’s military chased the Marians out of Rome as foreigners; in 1832 the Russian government closed the monastery in Berezdow in the Volyn; in 1834 the state government liquidated all three Marian centers in Portugal. 6 On the eve of the sweeping czarist abolition in 1864, the Marian Institute had approximately 80 members 7 in eight monasteries in ter- ritories under Russian rule; the entire Congregation was subject to the abolition decrees. The monastery in Rasno in Polesie was closed by the decree of Governor General Mikhail Muraviev dated September 4/16 [new style/old style], 1864, for participation by the Marians in the January Uprising against the czarist authorities. The other monasteries were located in the Polish Kingdom and the czar’s ukase of October 27/November 8, 1864 8 applied to them. Based on this decree, all monasteries were classified as subject to abolition if they had less than eight members and not subject to abolition if they had more monks. In turn, among monasteries not presently subject to abolition, two categories were defined: “supernumerary” with 8 to 13 members, which were not to accept novices and as a consequence were destined for closure as soon as the number of monks decreased to below 8; and “numerary” with 14 or more members, theoretically able to accept novices and therefore meant to exist permanently. 9 6 Gach, Piotr: Zakon marianów w XIX wieku [The Marian Order in the 19th Century], [in:] Marianie , pp. 72, 83, 84. 7 Kosmoski, Jan: I Padri Mariani nell’antica Res Publica di Polonia “ Rzeczpospolita ” dal 1787 al 1864 , Roma 1988, typescript, p. 434. 8 Gach, Piotr: op. cit. , p. 90. 9 Gach, Piotr: Kasaty zakonow na ziemiach dawnej Rzeczypospolitej i Slaska 1773-1914 [Abolition of monastic orders in the former territories of the Polish Commonwealth and Silesia, 1773-1914], Lublin 1984, p. 180.