St Stan Illustrated Story

T he novitiate was, of course, as it is today, a period of proba- tion. The novice Stanislaus Papczynski came under the di- rection of the saintly novice master, Fr. John Franco (Franchi) of the Holy Cross. Stanislaus followed the normal routine of the novitiate, training himself by a life of prayer, meditation, spiritual reading, mor- tification, and humble submissiveness. From the beginning, Stanislaus surpassed even those who had been in the Order for many years by his love and practice of the virtues of re- ligious. He performed the lowliest tasks, cleaning out barns and stables, chopping wood and carrying it to the kitchen stove, and washing dishes. On the coldest days of winter, he would be sent out, with hands raw, chapped and numb from the bitter cold, to fetch water from the well. After completing his first year of the novitiate, Stanislaus was sent to Warsaw to continue his period of probation and begin the study of theology. On July 21, 1655, four days after Stanislaus’s departure from Podoliniec, the Swedes invaded Poland. The victorious Protestant armies advanced rapidly, sweeping over the land like a merciless deluge which threatened to engulf everything that was Polish and Catholic. 42