Servant of Mary new file

Casimir as their ideal, they worked very fruitfully in Poland and Portugal.They paved the way for others. More Czechs would come to the Marians until the end of the 18th century. Three of them in particular rendered great services to the order. Father Candid Spourny, one of the most courageous Procurator Generals of the Marians, who was very enterprising and characterized by an excep- tional ease at winning friends and benefactors, managed to procure for the Marians the Church of St. Vitus in Rome together with the adjacent Cistercian monastery. It was there that the permanent office of the Procurator General was established. It existed there until 1798 when all for- eigners were expelled from Italy by the Napoleonic troops. Father Joseph Mraas, a splendid organizer, who was always warmly received and especially welcomed in the homes of magnates, was a Superior General of the congre- gation for four years. Father Clement Reddig, who served as Novice Master for many years, educated young genera- tions of Marians in the spirit of Father Wyszy<ski. Father Casimir hoped to attract candidates of other nationalities as well. In his plans to develop the congrega- tion, he reached out to Lithuania and Ruthenia, from where, in time, new vocations would arrive. The Congregation of Marians owes to Father Casimir Wyszy<ski its more universal character. The Czechs, Italians, Lithuanians, Ruthenians, Hungarians, and French who applied to join the Marians would spend their novi- tiate in Poland, to get acquainted with Polish culture, lan- Efforts for the Growth of the Marian Family 26