871 self-offering formula of vows, in other words — the Oblatio — had been written before he received the indult of departure, and he inserted in his Oblatio the main features of the new community, that is, its name, purpose, etc. By researching the oldest source materials, we rediscover, on the one hand, matters and things that have been forgotten or neglected in the past, and on the other hand, we sharpen our awareness of the present and future generations of the Congregation of Marian Fathers. The Oblatio is of particular importance here as the point of our Congregation’s origin, deliberately planned and carried out by St. Stanislaus Papczyński. This new cognizance, as it were, has found its reflection in the newest Constitutions. Andrzej Pakuła, MIC In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ Crucified. Amen. 1. I, Stanislaus of Jesus and Mary Papczyński, according to the flesh the son of Thomas from Podegrodzie, in the Diocese of Krakow, being forty years of age,71 offer and consecrate to God the Father Almighty, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, and to the Mother of God the Ever-Virgin Mary conceived without the stain of original sin: my heart, my soul, intellect, memory, will, emotions, whole mind, whole spirit, interior and exterior senses, and my body, leaving absolutely nothing for myself, so that from this moment forward I may be wholly the servant72 of this same Almighty God and of the Blessed Virgin Mary. 71 Father Papczyński, born May 18, 1631, had not yet completed his forthieth year. 72 There are some who have commentated on the Oblatio and in it, on the word servus, who would like to see here an expression of holy slavery to Mary, which was strongly present in Europe and Poland at the time of Saint Stanislaus of Jesus and Mary Papczyński. Especially the word servus, which in their opinion should be translated as slave, would be proof of this. However, the piety of holy slavery to Mary had other forms and a different spirituality which is absent within the writings of St. Stanislaus. There were three basic expressions of holy slavery to Mary: 1) its own spirituality with a singular formula of consecration to the Mother of God; 2) special terminology, in which the holy slave to Mary was called mancipium but not servus; 3) a small chain imposed on the wrist as a sign
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