909 the foundation of the house of recollection myself (and so forth, according to the formula composed and copied by me above).257 In Lubocza, July 4, 1673. 16. The Korabiew Forest — truly quite a vast one — is located between four towns: Bolimów, Mszczonów, Skierniewice, and Wiskitki. I went there from Lubocza, late on a Sunday — if I remember well, the eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost258 — in a cart filled with food and a few of my possessions in 1673. I did not find Krajewski, but only a certain Simon, a tertiary of St. Francis, and another — an organist with a domestic servant. That Simon, a diligent man, came here from Italy, where, for about four years, he led an eremitic life near Subiaco, above the holy Grotto. Being at that time a guest in the hermitage, he had different goals and, through his eremitic way of life, rejoiced in the hope of entering the Society, which he nevertheless abandoned, having experienced the stricter observance of the Rule.259 17. And so, having greeted according to my custom the holy patrons and protectors of [certain] persons and places, commending myself to our good God, I went to the cottage recently constructed by a certain Lithuanian soldier named John Nowosielski. For two years, he lived in [the cottage] on account of penance and was entrusted to me. I strongly and most humbly entrusted him to the heavenly Virgin and to St. Jerome, whose annual memorial it was. 18. Very early in the morning, I arose from sleep and awoke those hermits to come for prayer. But on the second and third days, they complained to Krajewski, who had just returned, that I was forcing them to pray, when in fact they had come to work with him. I noticed, therefore, that these men were not inclined to any kind of prayer. They were willful, living in the Forest not 257 Cf. above, HW, pp. 864-872, n. 5 (Oblatio). 258 Father Papczyński’s memory was incorrect here, because he actually came to the Korabiew Forest on September 30, 1673, on the Feast of St. Jerome (as he points out in the next section), which, in 1673, fell on the Saturday before the 19th Sunday after Pentecost. 259 Simon probably left the Korabiew Forest shortly after the visit by Bishop Święcicki (cf. below, § 21), who at that time prescribed a “stricter observance of the Rule” for those living there. Cf. below, § 20.
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