Quote of the day, 11 August: St. Raphael Kalinowski

The God of mercy does not cease coming to the aid of his weak creature. The life of human beings and their most ambitious desires have limits, while God’s love has none. 

This love accompanies us along our way, surprises us in our erring wayward paths, and reminds us of what we have forgotten; it repeats in our hearts the promises made on a day, long ago, and speaks to us at length of our first faith, of that first charity, of that incomparable innocence regained with holy baptism.

A stream of tears floods one’s conscience at the sight of the loss of those treasures, and to this the Spirit of God bears witness. Christ’s mercy endures everything, and does not think evil but rejoices in the good; it intercedes for us, and knocks on the door of our heart, it lowers itself until it conquers the soul with its love full of humility.

Saint Raphael Kalinowski

Conference given to the Discalced Carmelite nuns for the renewal of vows, on the occasion of a pastoral visit. Date and place unknown.

Praskiewicz OCD, S 2016, Saint Raphael Kalinowski: An Introduction to his Life and Spirituality, Translated from the Polish by Coonan, T, Griffin, M & Sullivan, L, ICS Publications, Washington DC.

Featured image: Noah Buscher / Unsplash

#GodSLove #humility #JesusChrist #mercy #StRaphaelKalinowski

Quote of the day, 9 May: St. Raphael Kalinowski

Some of Saint Raphael’s talks are extant and in one he tells the story of the blind man who asked the Savior to restore his sight. His prayer was heard and he was cured as a reward for his faith.

Following the example of the blind man, a person should ask God for the gift of a living faith in the presence of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament on the altar, in the Church and in the person of the Holy Father, the Vicar of Christ on earth.

A person should be noted for devotion to the Church, and to the Pope as its head. Because we possess in the Church the precious treasure of faith, the grace of the sacraments, the example of the saints and all the means for salvation, we should show gratitude and devotion to the Pope.

So too should we pray for bishops and clergy, for the perseverance of the just and the conversion of sinners. To achieve this goal we need to avoid sin, and remember in prayer the goal we are aiming at.

Father Timothy Tierney, O.C.D.

Part Two, chap. 5, Juniorate for Carmelite Students in Wadowice

Tierney, T  2016,  Saint Raphael Kalinowski: Apprenticed to Sainthood in Siberia,  Balboa Press,  Bloomington, IN

Featured image: Saint Raphael of St. Joseph Kalinowski, edited from the photo taken 30 March 1897. Photo credit: Discalced Carmelites (Used by permission)

⬦ Reflection Question ⬦
Do I recognize Christ’s presence in the Eucharist, the Church, and the person of the Pope?
⬦ Join the conversation in the comments.

#devotion #gratitude #HolyFather #prayer #StRaphaelKalinowski #VicarOfChrist

Quote of the day, 8 May: St. John Paul II

Was Saint John Paul II a Carmelite?

Some years ago, a lively discussion arose online about whether Saint John Paul II was formally affiliated with the Discalced Carmelite Order.

In a 2001 message to the Carmelite family, the Holy Father wrote:

“I too have worn the Scapular of Carmel over my heart for a long time! Because I love the heavenly Mother we all share, whose protection I constantly experience, I hope that this Marian year will help all … to grow in her love and to radiate to the world the presence of this Woman of silence and prayer…”
— Message to the Carmelite Family, 25 March 2001

When this question of official affiliation was raised in the Carmelites Unite Facebook group, a friar of the Krakow Province, Father Włodzimierz Tochmański, OCD—a friar with deep knowledge of the Discalced Carmelite Secular Order in Poland—responded that Karol Józef Wojtyła was never canonically affiliated with the Third Order of the Teresian Carmel.

However, Fr. Tochmański emphasized the Pope’s deep spiritual affiliation with Carmel, akin to the bond shared by members of the Scapular Confraternity.

Biographers also highlight the formative role of the Discalced Carmelite friars in Wadowice, the Pope’s hometown. Although St. Raphael Kalinowski, OCD, had died in 1908—twelve years before Karol Wojtyła was born—his legacy continued to shape Carmelite life in Wadowice for decades. As a young priest, Wojtyła studied in Rome, and in 1948 he successfully defended his doctoral dissertation at the Angelicum: “The Doctrine of Faith in St. John of the Cross.”

St. John Paul II and the Carmelite Scapular

In his homily for the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel on 16 July 1988, delivered at the Alpini pilgrimage Mass on Mount Adamello, the Pope spoke warmly of the Scapular tradition:

“It is not the time to dwell on the particular devotion to Our Lady of Mount Carmel. I will only cite a few words of Pius XII, who wrote in an authoritative document: ‘No one surely is ignorant of how much the love for the most blessed Mother of God contributes to enlivening the Catholic faith and to amending lives, especially through those expressions of devotion which, more than others, seem to enrich minds with supernatural doctrine and move souls to the devout practice of the Christian life. Among these must be mentioned the devotion of the Sacred Scapular of Carmel, which, by its simplicity, adapts to the character of everyone and is widely spread among the Christian faithful, with abundant spiritual fruits.’”
— Homily on Mount Adamello, 16 July 1988

Just over a week later, in his Angelus address of 24 July 1988, the Pope returned to the theme:

“In Carmel, and in every deeply Carmelite soul, an intense life of communion and closeness with the Blessed Virgin flourishes. This becomes a ‘new way’ to live for God and continue here on earth the love of Jesus the Son for His Mother Mary.”
— Angelus, 24 July 1988

He also affirmed the Scapular as “a particular grace” passed on by Mary, recalling the tradition tied to St. Simon Stock, and described it as: “A sign of affiliation with the Carmelite Order… a means of tender and filial Marian devotion.”

A Personal Word

In a visit to the Carmelite parish of Santa Maria in Traspontina in Rome on 10 February 1991, Pope John Paul II offered a personal memory:

“I lived as a child in a town and parish where there was also a Carmelite monastery and convent, where I learned this great Carmelite tradition… This tradition, rooted in the Old Testament with the prophet Elijah, renewed in the Middle Ages, has come down to us—even here near the Vatican—and to this Pope, who has been connected to it since his earliest youth.”
— Address at Santa Maria in Traspontina, 10 February 1991

He closed with a blessing and a wish for all present:

“I wish you every blessing as you continue your journey under the protection of Our Lady of Mount Carmel and her Scapular, as we see in the Carmelite Third Order.”

Saint John Paul II

Translation from the Italian text is the blogger’s own work product and may not be reproduced without permission.

Featured image: Brown Scapular worn by Saint John Paul II, a gift to the Discalced Carmelite parish in Wadowice, Poland. Image credit: Discalced Carmelite Order (Used by permission)

⬦ Reflection Question ⬦
How might I grow closer to Carmel’s spirit of silence, prayer, and Marian devotion in my own life?
⬦ Join the conversation in the comments.

#BrownScapular #DiscalcedCarmelite #OCDS #Poland #StJohnPaulII #StRaphaelKalinowski #Wadowice

Quote of the day, 4 May: St. Raphael Kalinowski

‘Do you love me? Do you love me?’ [Cf. Jn 21:15-17]. Love gives strength to do the will of God in every situation, to avoid everything that might displease Him, to work and to suffer for His glory.

St. Teresa wanted to suffer or to die; St. Magdalen de Pazzi did not want to die, but to suffer.

Love is strong as death [Sg 8:6]. And just as nothing can resist death, love gives strength to triumph over every challenge. Then you don’t feel pain, and if you do you welcome it. From this fire of God’s love the flame of love of neighbor arises.

Anyone who loves God with all his heart desires that God be loved by all and this desire pervades his whole life….

But who is able to achieve such a degree of perfect love, which will free our soul from attachment to any earthly goods and completely unite our will with God’s will?

When the Divine Savior again asks us for our hearts, let us ask Him to take them to Himself; only He can purify them and light the fire of holy love and an ardent desire to be detached from everything and to want only His holy will.

Saint Raphael Kalinowski

Tierney, chap. 8: Vicar Provincial for the Carmelite nuns (1901)

Tierney, T  2016,  Saint Raphael Kalinowski: Apprenticed to Sainthood in Siberia,  Balboa Press,  Bloomington, IN

Featured image: This detailed view of The Denial of St. Peter by an anonymous follower of Gerard (Gerrit) van Honthorst (Dutch, 1592–1656) was painted in the 17th century and is now in the Prado Museum in Madrid. The canvas, cut on all four sides, is believed to be based on an engraving after van Honthorst’s original, dated around 1620–25 and held in the Minneapolis Institute of Art. Christian tradition has long seen Jesus’ threefold question to Peter in John 21 as a loving invitation to reaffirm his devotion, undoing his triple denial on the night of Christ’s Passion. Image credit: Copyright ©Museo Nacional del Prado (Public domain)

⬦ Reflection Question ⬦
How is Jesus inviting me to respond more fully to His love, even in the face of weakness or failure?
⬦ Join the conversation in the comments.

#detachment #GodSLove #hearts #inspiration #love #perfection #StRaphaelKalinowski #strength #suffering #willOfGod

Quote of the day, 26 November: St. Raphael Kalinowski

Saint Raphael Kalinowski’s last and longest stage of life is the thirty years (1877–1907) he lived in the Carmelite monastery. Consenting to the voice that called him to Carmel, Joseph Kalinowski entered formation, ready to work for God within the Church after decades of service as an engineer, military officer, prisoner of war in Siberia, professor and tutor.

On November 26, 1877, he went to Graz, Austria and was clothed in the habit of the Order, receiving at the same time his religious name: Raphael of Saint Joseph.

How did Kalinowski come to know Carmel? We turn to Father Szczepan T. Praskiewicz, OCD, for the details. He provides fascinating insights into the development of the Saint’s vocation.

Karmelitenkonvent Linz | Image credit: Discalced Carmelites

In his Memoirs Saint Raphael tells us that early on during his exile in Siberia he happened upon a copy of a book written by Piotr Skarga, The Lives of the Saints:

That opened up many horizons for me. There I discovered a note on the Order of the Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel and its rapid diffusion in the West. It occured to me that precisely this Order should be able to bring the schismatics back to the Church of Rome. Guided in a marvelous way by Providence, I entered this Order ten years later.

As with every vocation story, there were many graced encounters that guided his steps along the way.

Saint Raphael Kalinowski had wanted to find a way to become a Carmelite friar, which is why he became a tutor to Gucio, the young son of the noble Czartoryski family residing in Paris. But in God’s providence and unbeknownst to Saint Raphael, one of his pupil’s aunts was a Discalced Carmelite nun in the Carmel of Krakow.

In true Teresian spirit, this aunt, Sr. Mary Xavier of Jesus was seeking young men to renew Carmelite life in Poland. When the Saint accompanied his young pupil on a trip from Paris to visit his aunt at the monastery in Krakow, Kalinowski made a profound impression upon the nun; still, it was the Holy Spirit that spoke to her spirit, impressing upon her the fact that her nephew’s tutor was sent by Divine Providence.

Without saying a word, Sr. Mary Xavier of Jesus began a prayer crusade for the family tutor and his vocation to the Discalced Carmelites; furthermore, she began to correspond with him.

Saint Raphael explained what had happened in a letter to his family back home in Vilnius, Lithuania:

I have a sign of the mercy and goodness of the Lord, which brought me hope and consolation through people consecrated to him. Gucio’s aunt, the Reverend Sister Mary Xavier of Jesus… whom I met only once at the grilles and who hardly knows me, only a few days ago—exactly when I least expected it—sent me the following poem of the seraphic Saint Teresa: Let nothing trouble you, let nothing frighten you…

Nada te turbe in the current Polish translation

Fr. Praskiewicz tells us that St. Teresa’s famous Nada te turbe became Kalinowski’s motto. Soon after he received Sr. Mary Xavier’s letter, he wrote to his parents:

Each day I take strength from Saint Teresa’s words about which I wrote to you, my dear parents, in my last letter.

In the end, these very words were the source of divine inspiration that induced him to join the sons of St. Teresa, the Discalced Carmelite friars. He wrote to his parents on 4 November 1876:

A year ago there came to me, like an echo, a voice from the grilles of Carmel. This voice was clearly addressed to me and I have accepted it; it was a salvific voice from the infinite mercy of God commanding me. I can only exclaim, ‘I will sing the mercies of the Lord forever.’ The only thing that now remains for me to do is to ask your parental blessing.”

Kalinowski attended to the details, the housekeeping of his life as anyone aspiring to enter religious life would do: prepare to leave a job, a home, to travel and pray. On 5 July 1877, he left the Czartoryski family in Paris and traveled to Linz, Austria to meet the Discalced Carmelite provincial superior.

God rewarded Kalinowski for the steadfast pursuit of his vocation at such a mature age—Raphael of St. Joseph was 42 years old when he received the holy habit of Our Lady of Mount Carmel.

A statue of Saint Joseph in the Maria Schnee convent of the Discalced Carmelite friars in Graz, where St. Raphael Kalinowski entered the novitiate. Image credit: Eigenes Werk / Wikimedia Commons

Praskiewicz OCD, S 2016, Saint Raphael Kalinowski: An Introduction to his Life and Spirituality, Translated from the Polish by Coonan, T, Griffin, M & Sullivan, L, ICS Publications, Washington DC.

Featured image: The Discalced Carmelite crest is seen above the main entrance to the friars’ convent in Linz, Austria. Both St. Raphael Kalinowski and St. Alphonsus Mary Mazurek passed beneath this hallowed gate; the friars in Linz also cared for the Servant of God Père Jacques Bunel after he was liberated from the Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp in 1945. Image credit: Andrzej Otrębski / Wikimedia Commons (Some rights reserved)

#CarmeliteHabit #Clothing #Graz #Linz #NadaTeTurbe #novitiate #StRaphaelKalinowski #SzczepanTPraskiewicz #vocation

St. Raphael Kalinowski: From Siberia to Carmel

The time for [Kalinowski’s departure for Siberia] duly arrived. He took with him into exile a copy of the New Testament together with the book of Job and the Psalms, the Imitation of Christ, and his crucifix. Having in mind the biblical command (‘pack your bag for exile’ – Jer 46:19), Kalinowski relates: “On June 29, 1864, the long terrible march began.”

Father Timothy Tierney, O.C.D.

Saint Raphael Kalinowski’s journey from forced exile in Siberia to the cloisters of Carmel is a testament to the transformative power of faith. His life exemplifies perseverance, trust in God, and the ability to find meaning even in the harshest trials. As we celebrate his feast day, we reflect on his remarkable story and the spiritual depth that carried him through this journey.

On the solemn feast of Saints Peter and Paul, June 29, 1864, Józef Kalinowski began his ten-month journey into exile. Crowded into train cars with fellow prisoners, he described the scene as resembling a funeral procession. Flowers were thrown onto the train by onlookers—a gesture of farewell that symbolized both sorrow and hope.

Despite the harrowing conditions, Józef carried with him a spiritual arsenal: the Scriptures, The Imitation of Christ, and a crucifix. These companions sustained him, shaping his faith and preparing him for his future mission as a Carmelite friar and reformer.

Saint Raphael’s time in Siberia planted the seeds of his spiritual renewal, which later bore fruit in his Carmelite vocation and his restoration of the Teresian Carmel in Poland. His story of endurance and trust in God continues to inspire Carmelites today.

There’s so much more to explore about Saint Raphael Kalinowski’s remarkable life. For an in-depth look at his journey and his impact on the Teresian Carmel and the Church, click the YouTube link below to discover his inspiring story.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xMNJRvTYVg

Tierney, T  2016,  Saint Raphael Kalinowski: Apprenticed to Sainthood in Siberia,  Balboa Press,  Bloomington, IN

Featured image: Dall-e creates a dreamlike image of Russian prisoners like St. Raphael Kalinowski bound for the salt mines in Siberia. AI-generated art using the prompt “Russian train from 1864, used to transport prisoners to Siberia.” Image credit: ChatGPT / Carmelite Quotes (Some rights reserved)

#DiscalcedCarmelites #exile #imitationOfChrist #Poland #politicalPrisoner #restoration #Siberia #StRaphaelKalinowski

Quote of the day, 19 November: St. Raphael Kalinowski

We should praise and venerate the one who is the refuge of sinners here on earth and in heaven. We should love the Blessed Virgin, because she is the mother of us all: “Here is your mother.” She is a loving mother, because she not only carries us in her bosom, but with Jesus loves us as her children, and helps us in all our needs. She is a gracious and merciful mother for all sinners who draw near to her, a powerful mother because God gave his riches into her keeping. She wants to be loved as mother and says to us: “My son, give me your heart, a heart that is loving, grace filled, focused on my Son; this is what I expect from you first of all.” … Come, Mary, rule over us and direct us. As breathing is not only a sign of life, but also its cause, so the name of Mary should be constantly on the lips of the servants of God, it is a sign that the person is alive.

SAINT RAPHAEL KALINOWSKI

During the special congress of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints that met on March 18, 1980, to discuss Raphael Kalinowski’s heroic virtues, the first “relator” recalled in his vote the deep Marian devotion of the Servant of God, evoking his maxim, “Mary always and in everything.”

The Virgin Mary clearly played a very special role in the saint’s life and occupies a unique place in his spirituality. His Marian spirituality corresponds fully to the directives the Council offered us sixty years after the death of the saint. Contemporary Mariology, following the direction Vatican II marked out emphasized Mary’s greatness as mother of Christ and super-eminent member and mother of the Church. 

The theology of our times, therefore, treats the figure of the Blessed Virgin Mary in a Christological and ecclesiological context. Saint Raphael Kalinowski’s Mariology had such an orientation. His Marian spirituality does not stop with the figure of Mary, but through her leads to Christ, living and working in the Church, his Mystical Body. Let us briefly review the principal aspects of this spirituality:

His conversion took place after college on account of Mary, and led Joseph Kalinowski to Christ through the sacramental ministry of the Church; [“With her help, I have been able to build up my interior life. I recognized the value of familiar religious principles and, finally, I turned toward them.”]

His entrance into Carmel, the order of Mary, had as its goal to serve Christ more closely and to work for the unity of his Church; [“Precisely this Order should make the Eastern schismatics return to the breast of the Church of Rome.”]

The testimony of a religious life in imitation of Mary—“the Book where the eternal Word of God, Christ the Lord, is read to the world”—is confirmed and blessed by the Church;

Fidelity to the religious vocation of the Brothers [and Sisters] of the Blessed Virgin Mary does not consist of a sentimental love for her, but in “attending to her affairs,” [“We are her work and she does not cease calling us to be her ministers, to take care of her affairs.”] seeing in her the secure guide to Christ, in other words:

• Accepting and accomplishing—like her—the will of God, contemplating and preaching his Word made flesh in Christ Jesus, author of our salvation, of which the Christ is now the sacrament;
  
• Spiritually directing the souls of his brothers and sisters, pointing out to them the road ad Jesum per Mariam [to Jesus through Mary] or, better yet, ad Jesum cum Maria [to Jesus with Mary], taking as a base the common faith of the Church in her role as mediatrix of grace until all of the “old man” is stripped off and they put on the armor of the “new man”;
• Propagating the scapular devotion—a sign of salvation and the Mother’s gift—a sacramental of the Church that helps sanctify every moment of life and attain the salvation accomplished by Christ.

In the final analysis, Mary always and in everything, but inasmuch as she guides us to Christ and brings us to communion with him in his Church, “to make us living stones of this Church, willing servants of our brothers and sisters on this earth and, after death, participants in God’s glory forever.”

Szczepan T. Praskiewicz, O.C.D.

St. Raphael Kalinowski: An Introduction to His Life and Spirituality
II. Elements of his spirituality (excerpt)

Praskiewicz OCD, S 2016, Saint Raphael Kalinowski: An Introduction to his Life and Spirituality, ICS Publications, Washington DC.

Tierney, T  2016,  Saint Raphael Kalinowski: Apprenticed to Sainthood in Siberia,  Balboa Press,  Bloomington, IN

Featured image: Virgin and Child is an oil on wood painting by Anthony Van Dyck (Flemish, 1599–1641) executed around 1620. It comes from the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (Public domain).

#BlessedVirginMary #BrownScapular #Christ #conversion #MotherOfTheChurch #StRaphaelKalinowski #VirginMary

19 November: Saint Raphael of St. Joseph Kalinowski

November 19
SAINT RAPHAEL OF ST. JOSEPH KALINOWSKI
Priest

Memorial

Raphael Kalinowski was born to Polish parents in the city of Vilnius in 1835. Following military service, he was condemned in 1864 to ten years of forced labor in Siberia. In 1877 he became a Carmelite and was ordained a priest in 1882. He contributed greatly to the restoration of the Discalced Carmelites in Poland. His life was distinguished by zeal for Church unity and by his unflagging devotion to his ministry as confessor and spiritual director. He died in Wadowice in 1907.

From the common of pastors or of holy men (religious)

Office of Readings

Second Reading

From the exhortations of Saint Raphael, Religious

(C. Gil, O. Rafał Kalinowski, pp. 109-110)

You must be holy

The Holy Scriptures praise nothing more than a perfect and holy life lived in the exact and perfect fulfillment of each one’s duties. In the Old Testament our Lord and God taught his people and told them: You must be holy because I am holy.

The Eternal Father gave us our Lord Jesus Christ as our teacher, master, and guide. He confirmed and ratified the Old Testament injunction where he taught us that we must emulate the holiness of the Father: You must be perfect just as your heavenly Father is perfect. How does one become perfect and holy? The Doctors of the Church, the leaders of souls, and the masters of the spiritual life answer: If you would be perfect and become holy, fulfill your duties faithfully.

Once a desert father was asked by a certain young hermit what books he ought to study in order to advance in holiness. The old man replied: My practice is to read two books only. In the morning hours I read the Gospel, and in the evening I read the Rule. The first teaches me the way I should walk as a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ. The other teaches me what I should do to be a good religious. That is enough for me.

Let us, therefore, be students of the laws of God so that we may conduct ourselves according to them. When you walk, these will guide you; when you lie down, watch over you; when you wake, talk with you. Wherever we may be or go, may they go with us to direct our footsteps. May they be so near us when we sleep that they may fill our thoughts as soon as we awaken. His voice will speak to us in them. He will refresh us for the day ahead. Through his laws, we will gain the victory over our doubts. We will cast away every obstacle. We will free ourselves of that sluggishness of nature which is the enemy of strength, the foe of devotion, and the lover of ease. The law of life will help us to overcome our fears in the time of temptation and to follow eagerly in the way of obedience. May it always be at hand to counsel us, so that by it we may find the strength to follow God’s call with generous hearts and willing souls.

Responsory

R./ Free your minds, then, of encumbrances, since it is the Holy One who has called you * be holy in all you do.
V./ For it is I, the Lord, who am your God; you have been sanctified and have become holy because I am holy. * Be holy in all you do.

Prayer

Lord God, you made your priest Saint Raphael
strong in adversity and filled him with
a great love in promoting Church unity.
Through his prayers, make us strong in faith
and in love for one another,
that we too may generously work together
for the unity of all believers in Christ.

We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
God, forever and ever.

Saint Raphael of St. Joseph Kalinowski, photo taken 30 March 1897 | Photo credit: Discalced Carmelites

Catholic Church 1993, Proper of the Liturgy of the Hours of the Order of the Brothers of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel and the Order of Discalced Carmelites (Rev. and augm.), Institutum Carmelitanum, Rome.

#DiscalcedCarmelites #LiturgyOfTheHours #Memorial #priest #StRaphaelKalinowski

If you want to go to heaven, call on Mary, because she is the gateway there. The easiest way to achieve salvation is to approach her pure heart, and ask her to intercede with God for us and beg his mercy. I don’t need to worry about the person who flees to her and trusts in her, for she speaks to God for us as a mother and obtains for us the grace of forgiveness.

The Queen of heaven and earth serves God and if we serve her well, we shall rule over the world and our enemies for to serve Mary is to reign.

Saint Raphael Kalinowski

Booklet for the Marian Congress at Leopoli (Lviv), 1905

Tierney, T  2016,  Saint Raphael Kalinowski: Apprenticed to Sainthood in Siberia,  Balboa Press,  Bloomington, IN

Featured image: The Coronation of the Virgin with Saint John the Baptist and Saint John the Evangelist is an oil on panel painting executed ca. 1478–79 by Italian artist Domenico Ghirlandaio (1449–1494) and his workshop. A gift from the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, it is found in the collection of European Painting and Sculpture Before 1900, of the Denver Art Museum. Image credit: Kress Foundation (Public domain)

https://carmelitequotes.blog/2024/08/21/kalin-callonmary/

#forgiveness #GateOfHeaven #heaven #intercession #Mary #Mother #QueenOfHeaven #salvation #StRaphaelKalinowski

Joseph Kalinowski knew better than anyone else the strength of the Czarist army, and he also knew that if an insurrection broke out it would fail.

“It was all too clear to his mind’s eye what would happen in a struggle of unarmed people against the power of the Russian government, which could command enormous armies.”

He was convinced that Poland “needed sweat rather than shedding of blood; for already too much blood has been spilled.” Conscious of all this, he continually asked himself:

“Can I remain passive when so many people have sacrificed everything for this cause, undoubtedly a national cause?” He finally decided to join the insurrectionists, even agreeing to become War Minister for the region of Vilnius. […]

After being spied on by the Russians for some time, Kalinowski was arrested on the night of March 24–25, 1864, and taken to a nearby Dominican monastery that had been transformed into a prison for the insurgents. He was the last of the leaders of the rebellion still at large. But his was a very serious crime: An ex-captain of the Czar’s army, he had become Minister of War against the Czar.

Hence the sentence passed by the Military Tribunal on June 2 was the most serious possible: capital punishment. Innumerable pressures from his family and friends, not to mention the great esteem in which he was held by nearly everyone, persuaded the Russians and even [the Czar’Governor General] himself to avoid the risk that he might come to be viewed as a martyr of the people; his death sentence was commuted to ten years of forced labor in Siberia.

On June 29, 1864, began the long terrible march that Kalinowski describes in these words:

“On the very feast of the solemnity of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul, near midday, the long file that we composed snaked its way through the streets of Vilnius toward the train station. An enormous crowd lined the streets and Cossacks on horses kept back anyone who tried to come close to us; many people were watching from their windows. It looked like a funeral cortege. But from the beginning of the insurrection how many such convoys had preceded us! Among us were people of every age and every condition. . . . We took our places in the train cars, where they piled one person on top of another. . . . When the train departed, people moving along the heights that dominated the railway threw flowers on it as they do on graves of the dead at cemeteries.”

When Kalinowski went to Siberia he took a copy of the Gospels, The Imitation of Christ, and his crucifix.

Szczepan Praskiewicz, O.C.D.

Chapter 4, Insurrection against the Czarist government and exile in Siberia

Note: Father Praskiewicz notes: “It would be difficult to recount here all the details of his trip to Siberia, many of which can be learned from his letters. It’s enough to know that this trip lasted almost ten months. Their destination was the salt mines of Usole near Lake Baikal; they arrived there on April 15, 1865.” Kalinowski’s good example made a profound impression on guards and fellow prisoners alike. Biographer Father Timothy Tierney, O.C.D. indicates: “A Russian officer who had supervised them along a stage of the journey broke down in tears when he said goodbye to Kalinowski.”

Praskiewicz OCD, S 2016, Saint Raphael Kalinowski: An Introduction to his Life and Spirituality, Translated from the Polish by Coonan, T, Griffin, M & Sullivan, L, ICS Publications, Washington DC.

Tierney, T  2016,  Saint Raphael Kalinowski: Apprenticed to Sainthood in Siberia,  Balboa Press,  Bloomington, IN

Featured image: This stunning photo of frozen Lake Baikal in winter captures the barren beauty of Siberia. Image credit: pranodhm / Adobe Stock (Stock photo)

https://carmelitequotes.blog/2024/06/28/kalinow-29jun64/

#crucifix #Gospel #Poland #prisonersOfWar #revolution #Russia #Siberia #StRaphaelKalinowski #TheImitationOfChrist #war