the suffering christ 754 A number of remarks within the CP text indicate that these Lenten meditations had been composed over a long period of time prior to being submitted for print by their author in 1690. In 1677, Stephen Wierzbowski, Bishop of Poznan, donated to the Congregation of Marian Fathers the Church of the Lord’s Cenacle located at the beginning of the Stations of the Cross that the bishop planned for Góra Kalwaria (New Jerusalem). This gift entailed the obligation of serving pilgrims, which included delivering sermons on the Lord’s Passion. Consequently, this prompted Fr. Stanislaus to do a final revision of these sermons and publish them in book format. He dedicated this work to John Stanislaus Witwicki, the new Bishop of Poznań, who was not initially sympathetic to the new religious community of the Marians; at one time, his attitude even jeapordized the very existence of the Order. By dedicating Christus Patiens to the Bishop of the diocese in which both Marian monasteries stood, Fr. Papczyński hoped to gain the Bishop’s benevolence and protection for his Congregation. 2. Composition, Content, and Purpose of the Work Christus Patiens contains seven discourses which, as it appears from certain statements, Fr. Papczyński originally used for his Lenten sermons. Thus, the author meditated consecutively on Christ praying in the Garden of Olives (discourse I), Christ being captured (discourse II), the flagellation of Christ (discourse III), the crowning with thorns (discourse IV), the carrying of the Cross (discourse V), the Crucifixion (discourse VI), and Christ’s death on the Cross (discourse VII). Every individual discourse follows the same compositional scheme. Each meditation has a quote from the Gospel that sets a foundation for the meditation. Then follows a brief introduction specifying the goal of that meditation. The principal part of the meditation is divided into four, five, or six sections (discourse I), in which the author explains the passage from the Scriptures relating to Christ’s sufferings.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjI2Mw==