The Immaculist Character of Spirituality 195 first serve the task of spreading devotion to the Immaculate Conception.88 In his Letter to Fr. Alexis Armini, S.P., General Superior of the Order of the Pious Schools, written in 1688, Fr. Papczyński presented a similar concept of the spirituality, albeit in a simplified manner.89 Having expressed his doubts about his personal and his new community’s future and having asked Fr. Armini to read the attached copy of the Norma vitae, Fr. Papczyński emphasized that his life was now focused, among other things, on giving “honor to the Virgin conceived without sin.” Such a brief yet essentialist approach, characteristic particularly of the Founder’s epistolary style, may be found in his Letter to the Marians in the Korabiew Hermitage of 1690,90 and in his First Testament.91 There, in order to emphasize the importance of some aims and practices, “he urgently recommends” that his confreres continue an “enduring veneration of the Virgin conceived without sin.”92 Writing Second Testament with his approaching departure from this world in mind, he categorically forbids making any changes whatsoever, especially to the Congregation’s title, and he admonishes his successor that he would not “dare to impiously abolish the veneration of theMost Blessed Virgin Mary which we, very unworthy, offer to her Majesty.”93 The same approach is noticeable in the documents of the early tradition of the Congregation of Marian Fathers, especially the documents of the Chapters held in Góra Kalwaria in 1702 and 1705; in Goźlin in 1706, 1710, and 1722; and in Puszcza Korabiewska in 1712.94 On the other hand, Statuta nearly exactly repeats the formulation of the Marian community’s aims which were first stated in the Norma vitae, with just one difference: Statuta does not identify the goals of the religious life as general 88 FDR, in: Selected Writings, pp. 905, 907, 908. 89 Cf. Letter to Fr. Alexander Armini, SP., General Superior of the Order of Pious Schools, in: Selected Writings, pp. 914-919. 90 Cf. St. S. Papczyński, A Letter to the Marians in the Korabiew Hermitage, in: Selected Writings, pp. 919-922. 91 Same author, The First Testament, in: Selected Writings, p. 928. 92 Ibid. 93 Same author, Second Testament, in: Selected Writings, p. 939. 94 Decreta – Ordinationes..., pp. 12-59.
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