Saint Who?
Saints Who Founded Communities
Saint Stanislaus Papczyński
Priest († 1701)Feast: May 18
John Papka was born in Poland in 1631, the son of a respected town official and his wife. He struggled as a student and left school twice as a boy. Later, studying far from home, he contracted a contagious illness which forced him to live on the streets for eighteen months. Towards the end of his studies he changed his surname from Papka to the more distinguished Papczyński.
He joined the Piarist order, taking the name Stanislaus, and became a respected scholar and confessor. He loved the order deeply and was even postulator for the cause of its founder, Saint Joseph Calasanz (see “Saint Who?,” February 23). But his zeal for the order brought him into conflict with other members, whose teaching activity was increasingly emphasizing professional at the expense of spiritual formation. This finally led him, brokenhearted, to request a separation in order to preserve peace.
Entrusting himself entirely to the Virgin Mary, he set out to found another community: the Marian Fathers of the Immaculate Conception. Their purpose was to promote devotion to the Immaculate Conception, to pray for the souls in purgatory, and to give spiritual guidance. Stanislaus wrote: “A man without love, a religious without love is like a shadow without sun, a body without soul, totally nothing…. Love is the soul, light, and life of the religious life and of each human association.” He died in 1701 and was canonized in 2016. His order continues to thrive.
Merciful Father, through the prayers of Saint Stanislaus, guide us to holiness, increase our love for Mary,
and deliver the souls in purgatory.
