Spirituality of the Religious Life According to St. Stanislaus Papczyński 184 he recognized the Rule’s similarity to the spirituality of the Marian Fathers. Leporini reports in his Vita Fundatoris that at the news of the Congregation’s Papal ratification upon this Rule, the Founder, “filled with great joy” intoned the Te Deum laudamus.64 However, judging by the declaration made before the Apostolic Nuncio during the act of the profession of vows, he had great reservations in regards to this Rule. It does not mean that he was against the idea of imitating Mary. On the contrary, he himself propagated this idea and found similarities in it. His reaction rather reflects his attitude towards the acceptance of the Rule, because from the beginning, he sought the ratification of his community on the foundation of the Norma vitae alone. Nevertheless, the adoption of Regula decem beneplacitorum strengthened the ecclesio-typical dimension of the Marian character of the community founded by St. Stanislaus and directly impacted the form of its spirituality. The Rule’s imitative character can be noticed both in the manner of presenting Mary who is shown as a model of the religious life in its various aspects, and in the structure of the work, which is divided into 10 chapters, each speaking of one specific virtue of the Blessed Mother. Already in the Preface, the author states that the Rule contains verum modus Virginem imitandi et ad illius exemplum Deo placendi. All the chapters are written in this vein; they depict the Blessed Virgin’s 10 virtues derived from the Gospel and set them up as a model for imitation by the religious order members in the following order: — chastity (castitas) referring to virginity, is based upon the author’s belief that Mary vowed chastity, which is supported – in his opinion – by the 64 VF, p. 649. Wyszyński speaks of the same reaction of Papczyński, only further reinforced by the acceptance of the rule: “Having recovered, the Venerable Servant of God, Fr. Stanislaus of Jesus and Mary convoked the Chapter, presented the Rule of Imitating the 10 Virtues of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary to his confreres and had it read with utmost attention and piety. Every listener marveled with great fervor and joy at the fact that the Rule was so perfectly fitting. They all expressed their wish to accept it and wanted to profess their solemn vows upon that Rule immediately. Thus, they all signed the following petition to the Apostolic Nuncio,” C. Wyszyński, op. cit., pp. 126-127.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjI2Mw==