St Stan Illustrated Story

122 I n August 1701, Fr. Stanislaus was forced by illness to take to his bed, from which he was not to rise again. He was fully aware that he was dying, and now that the Congregation had received its papal approbation, was ready to depart from this life in peace. From the lips of this fervent knight of the Immaculate Virgin, exhausted as he was by his labors for God and His Church, worn away by voluntary mortification and the fever now consuming him, there burst forth the words of Simeon: “Now Thou dost dismiss thy servant, O Lord, ac- cording to thy word in peace” (Luke 2:9). Racked with pain he, nevertheless, bore his sufferings patiently, and with complete submission to God’s will. When the pain became particularly acute, he would say, according to his custom, “Increase, O Lord, my sufferings, that you may diminish the punishment of the souls in purgatory.” On September 17, the feast of the Stigmata of St. Francis, it was evident that the end was fast approaching. Father Stanislaus was grow- ing steadily weaker. The Marians at the Cenacle – his spiritual sons – gathered around his bed. Humbly he made his confession, received the Viaticum, and was anointed. As for the last time he blessed his confreres, he urged them to per- severe in the observance of the Rule and the Constitutions , and to show special zeal on behalf of the suffering souls in purgatory. Grasping his crucifix and kissing it tenderly, he died peacefully with the words of the Savior on his lips: “Into Thy hands, Lord, I com- mend my spirit.”