70 THE SIGNS OF THE MYSTERY Conception, to assist parish priests in pastoral work and to bring assistance to the deceased. Therefore, obedient to the voice of God and his own commendable readiness, he changed his first vocation. On Wednesday, in the octave of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, on December 11, 1670, Fr. Michael of the Visitation released him — with the consent of the Supreme Vicar of Christ, Clement X and the Superior General — from his simple vows and oaths of perseverance. At that time, he offered himself anew in his Institute to God and his Mother, having received the blessing from the father mentioned above “May God strengthen what he has done in you.” [This father] noticed stability in virtues, outstanding holiness, and an unwavering will of Fr. Stanislaus to found such a congregation.66 This hagiographic emphasis was used here to hide an inconvenient truth — not fitting an idealistic image of holiness — about Father Papczyński’s reasons for leaving the Piarist Order. These reasons are listed in his Apologia,67 and certainly Father Wyszyński knew them well. However, he tried to ignore them, thus unfortunately covering with pious dust another essential truth about Father Stanislaus, or rather the suffering which was necessary for both him and his future work as the Founder of Marians.68 In the cited text from The Foundation of the House of Recollection, he himself compares these difficult events he experienced to the painful Way of the Cross he had to undertake. As the mystery of the Immaculate Conception is closely connected with Mary’s co-suffering with Christ — for by dying to herself, Mary became the Daughter of her Son and the Mother of the Church — similarly, Father Papczyński, chosen by God to be a sign of this mystery as Stanislaus of Jesus and Mary, had to undergo suffering and be born anew in a Paschal way. The suffering he humbly accepted out of love for Christ and his congregation, whose superiors put him to such a hard test, was therefore necessary, that it might open a new space in his heart for the grace of the Holy Spirit. In fact, the Holy Spirit, Who unites Mary 66 Wyszyński, Żywot, p. 69. 67 They are: hostility experienced from the superiors in 1664–1670; the relaxation of the observance of the old rule of a religious life set for the Piarists by their founder, St. Joseph Calasanz; love for the Congregation and sacrificing yourself for the sake of restoring peace; impediments in utilizing natural talents. 68 Cf. Papczyński, The Foundation of the House of Recollection, No. 8, p. 905.
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