historical writings 910 out of a desire for penance or for striving after perfection, but to be supported sumptuously by the alms that people gave them, considering them to be saints. [They] received [these alms] in abundance through Krajewski, who went around to the courts of noblemen. For this reason, I decided to return, having made a spiritual retreat of at least a month. In the meantime, however, I expounded my plans to Krajewski, [asking] whether he would grant to me and to the Society, with all the accompanying rights, his parcel of land which he had on another meadow, endowed with privileges, while he himself would be the Procurator of the Society. He reflected on this for some days, and at the end, he agreed [to it]. He wrote, by his own hand, the cessation [of his land], which he desired to join to the suitable acts to legalize it.260 Having obtained this, I was already thinking about other, even more zealous companions, with whom I could begin the [common] life and found, in this place, the Congregation, beginning with the House of Recollection. 19. My undertaking did not lack heavenly help. As the Divine Majesty sent me the necessary intermediary for help, a man — I state — who is dignified, pious, and learned; the Most Reverend Lord Stanislaus Hyacinth Święcicki, Bishop of Spigaceń, Archdeacon and official of Warsaw,261 who had received the order of the Bishop of Poznań, that while visiting his Archdeanery, he ought to go to the hermitage and either bind the hermits he finds under certain laws or remove them from there, since the Apostolic See had declared that no other hermits were to be admitted except those that had already been approved.262 And indeed the very devout Bishop showed me the interdict which he had written for this place. Nevertheless, on my counsel, he decided first to find out through his visitator as to whether the hermits truthfully belonged, in spirit, to the Society or whether they even were 260 This document was issued on October 7, 1673. Cf. Positio, pp. 336-339. 261 Bishop Stanislaus Święcicki was named Archdeacon in 1663, and soon after official of Warsaw. He held these offices until 1677. Cf. Positio, p. 366, n. 47. 262 Cf. Norma Vitae, Praefatio Informatoria, § 2, in: Positio, pp. 460-461 (Doc. XII, 1).
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjI2Mw==