St Stan Illustrated Story

108 I n spite of his advanced age Fr. Papczynski – always a great lover of religious poverty – made his journey to Rome “on foot, living on alms all the way.” In May 1668, the Papal Nuncio Marescotti had traveled along the same road from Rome to Poland – although in his case, by carriage, not on foot. The interesting description that he wrote of the journey gives us a vivid picture of its hardships and dangers – and much worse these must have been to a poor man traveling alone on foot – such as the long stretches of road where even food was almost unobtainable, the difficulty, especially for a priest, in finding a suitable lodging; the tracts of forest overrun by thieves and robbers; other areas briefly de- scribed as “dangerous” ( passo pericoloso ), even “deadly” ( passo della morte ). Father Stanislaus made his journey in late autumn when the rainy season made the roads still more hazardous. yet – staff in hand and regardless of hunger, cold, rain and mud – he pushed on. In his biography of the Saint, Fr. Leporini tells us that on one oc- casion he slipped and fell into a deep bog from which he was mirac- ulously saved by a saint of the Order of St. Francis.