Spirituality of the Religious Life According to St. Stanislaus Papczyński 162 with the concept of holy slavery to Mary which is particularly noticeable in the first period of the Saint’s founding activity. It manifests itself primarily in terminology and references to certain forms of Marian devotion. However, the proper ideology of holy slavery to Mary combined with an act of surrender to Mary – the Mother of God, Our Lady and Sovereign, as well as the forms and prayers typical of that piety, are not found in St. Stanislaus’ written works.7 Making the act of the Oblatio that initiated the process of creating the Congregation of Marian Fathers, Papczyński declared: “I […] offer and consecrate to God the Father Almighty, to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, and also to the Mother of God the Ever-Virgin Mary, Conceived without original sin, my heart, my soul, intellect, memory, will, feelings, my whole mind, my whole spirit, my interior and exterior senses, and my body, leaving absolutely nothing for myself, so that in this way I may be henceforth the whole-hearted servant of the same Almighty [God] and of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary.”8 To indicate his position in regard to the Triune God and the Blessed Mother he calls himself a servant – servus. Following the linguistic association in reference to the Latin word, C. Krzyżanowski, MIC, the translator of Papczyński’s several works, added in a footnote that to Papczyński the word servus might have had a dual meaning: “servant” in regard to God and “slave” in regard to Mary, because in 1632 in Poland, the “holy slavery to Mary” devotion was well-known.9 C. Krzyżanowski, MIC did not disclose his reasons for this assumption. Likewise, W. Makoś, MIC, the Polish-language translator of Inspectio cordis, states in the footnote to the passage, where the Founder uses the word “slave” (mancipium), that St. Stanislaus thus refers to the idea of holy slavery to Mary. He then goes to add that “he not only knew, but also practiced” this form of piety “and prescribed it to his spiritual sons.”10 To substantiate, he proffers Papczyński’s Oblatio, 7 Cf. Niewolnictwo mariańskie. Dwie publikacje polskich jezuitów z roku 1632, Edited by E. Reczek, in: Sacrum Poloniae Millennium. Rozprawy – Szkice – Materiały historyczne, t. X, Rzym 1964, pp. 319-480. 8 Oblatio, p. 28. 9 Ibid., footnote 33. 10 IC, p. 636, footnote 23.
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