Spirituality of the Religious Life According to St. Stanislaus Papczyński 20 The title of this research defines its timeframe, which also includes Saint Stanislaus Papczyński’s lifetime († 1701), as the period of the “early tradition of the Congregation of Marian Fathers.” It covers the first 50 years of this religious community’s history from 1673 (the year of the bishop’s approval of the first Marian monastery in Puszcza Korabiewska) until 1723, when Pope Innocent XIII ratified the Marian by-laws or Constitutions entitled Statuta PatrumMarianorumOrdinis B.V.M.... adapted to the Regula Ordinis Beatae Virginis Mariae quam Patres Mariani Congregationis Polonae... (alternate title: Regula decem beneplacitorum), adopted by the Marians in 1699. While the papal decision closes the period of the Marian community’s development as an institute of Clerics Regular, where Stanislaus Papczyński was the first to profess solemn vows before theApostolicNuncio Francisco Pignatelli in 1701, (his confreres made their professions into the hands of the Founder afterwards), there still were noConstitutions adapted to the Rule. Furthermore, Norma vitae written as early as 1672, was intended by the Founder as his new Institute’s one and only principal law, according to the principle constitutiones pro regula4 that the Church used back in the day in spite of dissimilar formal legal requirements. However, circumstances surrounding the rise of the new community soon forced Stanislaus Papczyński to modify his Norma vitae to fit the eremitical status, in which the Congregation was initially established (as the only possible form of installing a congregation of simple vows based on diocesan law). The Norma vitae (released in 1687) was edited and ratified in 1694 by Cardinal Leandro Colloredo on behalf of the Holy Congregation for Religious and Bishops. The text of this document – as we know it today – is the version adapted for the Marians’ status as hermits. In time, it also proved necessary to accept a rule previously recognized by the Church. The Marian Founder, who died in 1701, did not live to adjust his Norma vitae to the accepted Regula decem beneplacitorum, which was the necessary requisite. This work was performed by his successors. 4 Cf. J. Kałowski, Początki mariańskiego ustawodawstwa, in: Bł. Stanisław Papczyński, Pisma fundacyjne, Introduction by A. Pakuła, J. Kałowski, translated by K. Krzyżanowski, Warszawa, 2007, p. 62.
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