Father Stanislas Papczynski (1631-1701)
Written and researched by Margaret Odrowaz Sypniewska
Fr. Stanislaus of Jesus Mary Papyczynski is to be beatified! This announcement was made in the Marian Helper, Spring 2007, on page 3. The article is called "Great News on Marian Founder" by Father Joseph, MIC, and Director of the Association of Marian Helpers. Pope Benedict XVI ordered the publication of the decree about the miracle involving an unborn child, now age five (5). Medical doctors had said the baby was dead in her mother's womb, and that there was no heartbeat, and told the mother that her baby would self abort. When the mother returned for her follow-up visit to her doctor, the child's heart was once again beating.
Another article was in the Marian Helper titled "Help from Heaven" by David Came, and yet another report by Fr. William Skora, MIC, Postular General in Rome was included dated December 20, 2006.
It is noted that from the first weeks of pregnancy that there was a danger of losing her child. Ultrasound (USG) showed the fetus's size and heartbeat.
The next day after leaving the hospital, the symptoms of a miscarriage appeared. The second USG showed that the baby's heart had stopped. The doctor said to abandon the medication he gave her previously since the size of the fetus had diminished, and the child was pronounced dead. Three days later the woman visited her doctor once more to see if natural miscarriage had taken place. Another USG showed a heartbeat. Seven months later the healthy new baby was born.
Since this event (five years ago) church officials have been studying the doctor's records. Family members had a Novena for the child which lasted nine days. The woman's cousin and the baby's godfather came to the tomb of Fr. Papczynski to thank him and God for their intercessions.
Stanislas Papczynski was baptized on May 18, 1631, in the village of Podegrodzie in Poland. Podegrodzie is located near Stary Sacz in the heart of the Sandetian Valley. Podegrodzie is also where Stanislas Papczynski received his new life in Christ.
Stanislaus began his religious life in the monastery of the Piarists in l654, in Podegrodzie. He was the first Pole to take vows in the Piarist Order. He was Twenty-one (21) years old.
The Piarist Order was founded by St. Joseph Calasanz. It was first known as The Order of the Pious Schools. St. Joseph Calasanz was born in a little village in Spain called Peralta de la Sal in 1556. Calasanz was ordained to the Roman Catholic priesthood in 1583, and nine years later moved to Rome.
For many years during this period, with the Piarist Order, providence intertwined with Fr. Stanislaus' life in the Mazovian region surrounding Warsaw, capital of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The Piarist Orders were located between the Baltic and the Black Seas. This area had frequent conflicts, especially throughout the 17th and 18th centuries. There were conflicts with Turkey, the Cossacks, Russia, Sweden, and later, with an old vassal state, Prussia, and Austria.
Fr. Stanislaus Papczynski carried God's and was known as the "Mazovian Apostle." In 1673, The first Marian monastery was established there. Fr. Stanislaus Papczynski settled in a small part of the Puszcza Korabiewska (Korabiew Forest) near Skierniewice. Today it is called Puszcza Marianska (the Marian Forest). Papczynski spent nineteen(19) total years with the Piarists.
At the time of Swedish invasion of Poland, Fr. Stanislaus witnessed thousands of casualties both on battlefields and during plagues. He himself accompanied Polish troops, as a chaplain, in battles against Turkey in Ukraine in 1674. After the compassion he felt towards the dead and dying, Papczynski said to have experienced visions of the Holy Souls in Purgatory. He was saddened by the number of people that died without the benefit of the last rites of the Catholic Church.
Father Papczynski founded the Marions of the Immaculate Conception in 1673. Their symbol was a dove with an olive branch in its beak.
Pope Innocent XII approved the Order in 1699. The Marions were first placed within the Franciscan family of religious life. They took solemn vows according to the French Rule of the Ten Virtues of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Father Stanislaus of Jesus Mary Papczynski, was a Venerable Servant of God.
Father Papczynski was the Marion's Superior General until he died on September 17, 1701, after a seriously illness. He was buried in the Church of Cenacle in Gora Kalwaria, near Warsaw, Poland. The village of Podegrodzie in Poland, was his birthplace, and is also where Stanislas Papczynski received his new life in Christ. Podegrodzie is located near Stacy Sacz in the heart of the Sandetian Valley.
In 1716, Bishop Adam Rostkowski decided to close the Marian novitiate, instructing friars to leave the monastery and move out to assume pastoral work in parishes. Then, in 1722, Bishop John Tarlo of Poznan called the Marians back to their monasteries, and convened a general chapter. The man elected to serve as Superior General was Fr. Andrew of St. Matthew Deszpot, a Czech originally received into the Order by the founder Fr. Stanislaus. After this, the Order changed its crest to an image of the Virgin Mary as the Immaculate Conception with the intention of strengthening and expanding the Order under her protection.
On June 13, 1992, the Holy See recognized Papczynski's heroic virtues and declared him "Venerable." For his beatification there is presently a campaign to collect the miracles given in prayers to his name. The Marions are constantly collecting this data.
Marian Press has published a book about his life called Lumen Marianorium based on an English translation of the Polish original.
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This page is updated and designed by Maggie Sypniewski, BFA
Last updated on September 20, 2007
