St. Raphael Kalinowski and the Carmelite Secular Order 1 The ...

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Kalinowski`s specific work for Carmelite Secular Order. Raphael Kalinowski was the founder of Carmelite Third or Secular Order in Czerna and Wadowice and even before that , immediately after ordination, he was also appointed by the provincial as Director of the existing Secular Order , set up and led by Princess Marcelina at the Discalced Carmelite Convent in Lobozowa, Kracow. Secular Order meetings took place in Carmelite chapel on the first Friday of each month. Raphael took part in those meetings, directing and preaching conferences and hearing confessions. 5 Secular Carmelite members certainly were very devoted to Kalinowski as their Director. They went to him for the Sacrament of Reconciliation , he carried out the usual ceremonies for them , gave them inspiring talks and received what are now called their Promises. Like a good Father he tried to give them spiritual consolation such as arranging a meeting with Fr. Gotti, General of the Order . John Baptist Bouchaud OCD described in a biography of Kalinowski how he encouraged the members in Krakow to engage in charitable activities such as helping poor people, etc. The Secular Order as we saw had been in existence in Poland before Kalinowski's time but it was he who gave it a new impetus and established new communities. In this place I will briefly analyse historical facts related to our Secular Order in Poland and its relationship with St. Rafael. 1864 is thought to be the year Princess Marcelina established the Secular Order on her return from Paris, at the Carmelite Convent in Wesola , situated at 24 Copernicus St, Krakow. On December 8 th ,1873, the Third or Secular order was established in Poznan at the Discalced Carmelite Convent by a Belgian Discalced Carmelite Andrew of St. Romuald (Karol Gatzweiler), an esteemed confessor, who on that day received the first person into the Secular Order . This was a certain Fr. Wladyslaw Meszczynski, secretary to the Cardinal and a Papal Chamberlain of Pope Pius 1X . When the Discalced Carmelite nuns left Poznan in 5 When he sought advice from Fr. Jerome Gotti , General of the Order, (later made a Cardinal) during his visitation in Poland, on how to run the Secular Order community, he received this reply: ` As far as teaching the community members is concerned, I would advise you to make it as simple as possible. If The Secular Order has its own chapel, it would be different , but since you gather in the nuns' chapel, I would like the teachings to be edifying but simple. Don’t introduce any changes in the community's usual agenda. In my opinion it would be too much to expose the Blessed Sacrament . Instead , you could put out the relic of the Virgin Mary after giving your teaching , then decide on a virtue for the month, recite the rosary and litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Then bless the group with the relic and allow them to venerate it.` 4
1875 and moved to Krakow, they took also with them the books of the Secular Order. In years 1875 - 1910, forty six people were admitted to this community. Many people from aristocratic families and members of the clergy belonged to it, among them clergy from Poznan, eg Bishop Chrysostom Janiszewski, and many from the ranks of the ordinary clergy. Furthermore there was the aristocratic leader herself whom we have met before - Princess Marcelina Radziwill Czartoryska who took the name ` Maria of the Heart of Jesus (1817 - 1894) . She was not alone however , there was also numerous others from noble families , eg, Countess Stefania Bninska ,probably the wife of the Count who shared Kalinowski`s exile and Petronela Dybowska, perhaps related to the scientist Dybowski . Marcelina encouraged other people from noble families to join the Secular Carmel in Krakow. But she paid no attention to their titles but only to their good qualities. She received Anna Szpakowska who was one of the poor people in the area, whose only qualification was love of the sick , and it was she who brought great renown to the Carmelite Secular Order in Krakow. Marcelina Czartoryska organised regular meetings in Carmelite sisters` chapel in Lobozow. And she was responsible for admitting new members. Talks to the community were conducted by priests who had joined the community .Marcelina did a tremendous amount of good for Carmel in Poland especially for the nuns or members of the First Order as they are called . She helped in the renewal of the Carmelite family in Czerna also. She even went to Rome about this matter and sought the support of the superiors of the Order. Mother Xavier wrote about her: `Only God knows how much she did for the renewal in Czerna.` Furthermore we know that Princess Marcelina hosted the dinner after Kalinowski' s ordination in Czerna. Her house was open to everyone but she lived modestly herself and helped the sick in St. Luke`s Hospital. She contributed to the Conference of St. Vincent de Paul to assist their work , as also that of the Sisters of Mercy in Kazimierz in Krakow who visited the poor in their homes. She herself was a self-effacing person. She was in charge of the Secular Order in Krakow for almost twenty years until her death. When she died on June 5, 1894 Raphael Kalinowski simply referred to her as `a great benefactor`. The most rapid development in the story of the Secular Order took place only after the renewal of the Priory in Czerna, near Wadowice .There followed on this the renewal of the 5
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