By Paul Suski –
“They will pick up serpents [with their hands], and if they drink any deadly thing, it will not harm them. They will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.” (Mk 16:18)
Saints do not perform miracles by their own power, but they are humble channels of God’s power. Christ works through them and through the conformity of their will to His.
Miracles can be hard for the modern mind to accept. Mrs. Racoborska, a noblewoman and landowner of Cedrowice which bordered New Jerusalem, held a hostile attitude towards the Marians, prohibiting them from picking up dead wood from the forests that was used as fuel in the monastery. One day, her 12-year old daughter fell critically ill, and the desperate mother sought the Dominican Fathers` help in praying for her child’s life. However, the girl’s condition worsened. She was then advised to immediately seek Fr. Stanislaus Papczynsk’s assistance. Upon entering the Cenacle, the woman heard the words “I know why you are here, Go home; your daughter is dead.” In spite of this, the following day, the girl’s body was brought to the Cenacle and place on the table commemorating the Last Supper. Fr. Papczynski instructed the mother to go to confession while he began the Mass at the altar of St. Raphael the Archangel. As the priest was singing Gloria in excelsis Deo the girl suddenly returned to life. After the Mass, the mother expressed her gratitude by falling down at his feet.
Powerful healing prayer was often attributed to St. Stanislaus. During his stay with the Karski family, their son Joseph was involved in a tragic incident. The boy’s body had been badly crushed after falling under the wheels of a heavy wagon. Once the priest stood at the bedside of a dying child he told him: “Joseph, get up and hurry. You will serve at Holy Mass for me.” The boy immediately got to his feet and followed Fr. Papczynski to the chapel.
Divine Providence bestowed a gift of prophecy upon Fr. Stanislaus which sometimes turned out to be invaluable in his pastoral work. Nourished by the wisdom of the Cross, he was able to foresee people’s future and the consequences of their actions.
Otolia Cetler, who came from a noble family, was willing to join the Dominican Sisters in New Jerusalem. Numerous doubts had arisen over her a fragile and delicate state of health. Both the Sisters and her own parents found her rather unsuitable for religious life. The determined young woman decided to look for the aid of spiritual discernment from Fr. Stanislaus. Not only did he affirm her that she would be happy in her vocation and remain in the community till her death but also prophesied that to her dismay, some other sisters, who looked seemingly stronger and more suitable, would leave the religious life. As it happened.
In the autumn of 1697, King August II was crowned in Cracow and on his way back to Warsaw spent a night in New Jerusalem. The Saint happened to eavesdrop a group of senators say “Yes, we chose him as our King, and it was a good choice; but he will not live long; he is too fat”. On hearing this Fr. Stanislaus declared: “My Lords you are mistaken. The King will live a long time. He will live as many years as I have here golden coins that he gave me.” As he poured out coins of his hand, there were thirty-five of them; the number of years the King was yet to live.
On November 11, 1673, Fr. Papczynski fell into ecstasy, during of which he saw a crushing victory by the Polish army led by King John Sobieski III over the Turks at Chocim. When the ecstasy ended, he shared this news with the faithful gathered at the church. It proved later that the timing of the mystical experience coincided with the events in the battlefield.
Living in a war-torn time period, the Saint witnessed thousands of casualties on battlefields, and also from raging plagues and natural disasters. As chaplain for Polish soldiers in battles against Turkey in Ukraine in 1674, he was deeply moved to observe that many people died with no time to prepare to meet their Maker.
“One day in the midst of these graves, he had a vision of many of the souls, who begged him groaningly and with much insistence that he never cease to render them such help,” because they suffer intolerable pains in purgatory. Therefore, upon his return to his confreres, Fr. Papczynski “imposed upon them the obligation to remember in their prayers for the dead particularly the souls of soldiers and of the victims of pestilence” (S. Wyszynski, Life of the Ven. Servant of God Fr. Stanislaus of Jesus and Mary)
In August 1701, the Founder of the Marians was cognizant of his imminent journey to the afterlife. While lying in bed, afflicted by fever, yet with clear mind, he uttered the words “Increase, O Lord, my sufferings, that You may diminish the punishment of the souls in Purgatory.” It appears that his unquenchable desire to alleviate the suffering of the Holy Souls persisted until the very end, as the monk left for the House of the Father on September 17, in the location he had chosen for the new Marian foundation, New Jerusalem (at present Góra Kalwaria).
Conclusion
They are very few people who epitomize such outstanding and selfless service to the Church and to their Country in a quest to save human souls from eternal damnation by proclaiming the values we stand for. Without a doubt, St. Stanislaus a tireless confessor, a charismatic preacher, and a great promoter of the mystery of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary was one of those. The culmination of the journey of faith was his canonization Mass on June 6, 2016 by Pope Francis.
There exists a strong temptation to reduce the Church and her entire mission, almost exclusively to the temporal dimension, as another charitable institution, geared towards aiding the impoverished, the socially excluded, refugees and asylum-seekers. This is more and more perceived as a threat in Australia, one of the most woke places on earth, as well as in Catholic Poland.
There are many of the professed in the Church of Christ who have never made a real covenant with God at all. Regrettably, they may have not experienced that our suffering is of immense value when joined with Our Savior’s sacrifice and born with humility making it a powerful instrument to drawing people to God and to the Church.
We are truly Christian only to the extent that we accept the Cross as the fundamental option of life.