St Stan Illustrated Story

H owever, John did not remain long at home. His father, sus- pecting that some boyish caprice lay behind the entire episode of his flight from school, sent him back to Nowy Sacz. But it seems that once again our young student did not stay long there. On this occasion, his sudden departure was caused by a fight with one of the students who had struck his brother Peter. John, going to his defense, must have given the culprit quite a trouncing if he himself was forced to flee and seek safety at home from the threatened retaliation. After this second flight, John remained at home. He acquired what learning he could at the local school, and, from time to time, on his father’s orders, he herded the sheep in the meadows. P resumably the school at Podegrodzie, like all those in the vicinity, was only able to take the student through the first five grades of schooling. John was an intelligent and a talented boy, and anxious to continue his studies. His parents, therefore, at no small sac- rifice, sent him to Jaroslaw, over 100 miles east of Podegrodzie. In those days an expedition of this sort was not common for a 15- year-old boy. His departure from home, with prospect of not seeing his family and friends for a long time, was not without its emotional pangs and tears. Accompanied by his cousin (his aunt’s son), he arrived in Jaroslaw early in June 1646. He was accepted without difficulty at the Jesuit Col- lege where he, the son of a peasant and artisan, was, for the first time in his life thrown in with the sons of the wealthy and the nobility. Here, certainly, it seemed that he would be able to continue his studies without interruption. Divine Providence, however, decreed otherwise. With the end of July the summer vacations began, and, when school reopened a month later, John was no longer at Jaroslaw. He had received, in the meantime, additional funds from home, brought to him by someone from Podegrodzie who had come to the annual August Fair usually held at Jaroslaw around the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin. Thus equipped and acting on one of the sudden impulses of youth, John left Jaroslaw in the company of his cousin and another student and traveled further east to the renowned Jesuit College at Lvov (Lemburg). 30