St Stan Illustrated Story

I n 1649, now a young man of 18, John matriculated at the Piarist school at Podoliniec. In 1650, he completed his sixth grade (com- parable to our fourth year of high school). He was about to begin his study of the humanities (probably corresponding to the first year of col- lege in today’s system) when an epidemic broke out in the vicinity of Podoliniec. The schools were closed and the students sent home. Once again John was back in Podegrodzie. Although John’s family was not rich, they were never in need, and when his father again sent him into the pasture to tend the sheep, it was more for the discipline and character training that resulted from the work than out of any financial necessity (“If any man will not work, neither let him eat” (2 Thes 3:10). It was not the likeliest kind of work for a 19-year-old who had fin- ished high school, but John was an obedient and humble son. years later, recalling the time spent tending sheep in the mountain pastures, John thanked God that his parents had made a shepherd of him, for roaming the fields and watching the sheep had made it easier for him to preserve his purity of heart. After the summer of 1650, he returned to Lvov, where the Jesuits admitted him into the college. There he completed his first year of hu- manities (then called “poetics”) with honors. In May 1652, when John was in his second year of college (rhetoric), the Cossacks defeated the Polish Army at Batoh and threatened the city of Lvov with siege. John, like all who were able to escape, fled west into central Poland. One of the Jesuit colleges was at that time situated in Rawa, a small town of Mazovia (a province in the center of Poland). It was here that John, along with some other refugee students from Lvov, found safety and an opportunity to continue his studies. In fact, in Rawa he was able to complete his year of rhetoric and a two-year course in philosophy. 34