On Wednesday the 6th of November,
Bernadette Micallef conducted a Carmelite Conversation in the Library on Saint
Raphael Kalinowski OCD (1835-1907). Here is Bernadette’s introductory paper to
the Conversation.
Since our saint for today’s conversation is fairly new to most of us,
I’ll start with a brief overview of his life before going into any specific
details. The back cover of one of my main references, a book by a Polish author
I’ll call SP, gives a good summary.
[Raphael is the name he took in religious life. Joseph
is the name given him at birth.]
“Little known outside his native Poland, Joseph
Kalinowski (Kul/IN/ov/ski) (Raphael of St. Joseph, OCD) was born in 1835 and
became, by turns, an engineer, a military officer, a leader in the 1863
insurrection against Russian domination, an exile in Siberia, a tutor, and
eventually a Discalced Carmelite priest. He died in 1907 at the Carmelite
monastery he had founded in Wadowice, the city where Karol Wojtyla – the future
Pope John Paul II who would later beatify and canonize him – was born only 13
years later. Today Raphael Kalinowski is remembered especially as a man of
boundless charity in the Siberian prison camps, a restorer of Carmel in Poland,
a skilled confessor and spiritual director, and a tireless promoter of Marian
devotion and of unity between the Eastern and Western Churches. In 1991, he
became the first Discalced Carmelite friar canonized since St. John of the
Cross [in 1726].”
All saints, indeed all people, need to be understood
within the context of their particular time in history. This is especially true
for Joseph Kalinowski who lived his whole life in an occupied country. If you
look at an animated map of the borders of the Polish-Lithuanian
Commonwealth since its established in 1569, it morphs in size and shape as surrounding
powers tussle over territory until Poland and Lithuania are completely erased off
the political map. This final eradication occurred in 1795 with what’s called the
Third Partition of Poland. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQ8T4oWxe1g
SP, in describing the history of his own country,
writes, “The Polish-Lithuanian territory … was brutally divided … by three
foreign powers; Russia, Prussia, and Austria. The Polish and Lithuanian peoples
never agreed to this arrangement, nor did they ever accept this kind of
injustice. They showed their patriotic love and unconquerable desire for
liberty in continual insurrections against the occupying forces.” SP8
This political situation “had a disastrous effect on
religious Orders. Carmel had been established in Poland in 1605 and before the
partitions had 17 monasteries of friars and eight of nuns. This number was reduced
to one monastery of friars at Czerna (Cherna) near Cracow, and one convent of
nuns at Cracow (in the Austrian sector). (1MC42)
This is the political/religious situation into which
Joseph Kalinowski was born.
Early Life – Catholic and Patriotic
Joseph was
born on 1st
September 1835 in Vilna/Vilnius (the capital of
Lithuania) and had one older brother, Victor. Andrew, his father, was a
mathematics professor at the Institute of Nobles in Vilnius and later
headmaster there. Josephine, his mother, died two months after his birth. He
and Victor were then raised by Josephine’s sister Victoria whom their father
later married. They had three children together but Victoria died when Joseph
was 9 years old. His father re-married again, Sophie, who was only seven years
older than Joseph. She then had four children, making Joseph the second-eldest
of nine siblings. Joseph attended the Institute of Nobles from the age of 9 and
graduated with honors at 15. I presume some of his brothers went there too.
SP
writes that in both his home and at school “the whole ideal of his existence is
delineated in these two components: to be a Christian and to be a Pole.” Joseph
tells us in his Memoirs about the school, “The Institute was a private
[residential] school and only on Sundays were parents or family members allowed
to bring their sons home. Discipline for boarding students was in fact very
strict. Except for the Director ..., the entire administration of the Institute
was in the hands of Polish professors, who conducted themselves with us in an
exemplary way. The most esteemed of all the professors was Father Mokrezcki, a
Dominican priest, one of the [few] religious still able to remain at Vilna. But
our joy at having him as our professor was short-lived. Because of a patriotic
sermon he preached for the feast of Saint Hyacinth, he was sent to Siberia.” SP9
So
this was Joseph’s experience growing up, and probably not a one-off experience,
that people who publically professed their patriotism were arrested and sent to
Siberia. Upon leaving school, this climate of living in an occupied country now
presented a dilemma to the young Joseph and his family. SP writes, “He wanted
to pursue higher studies in this field [mathematics and geometry] but like
every other Polish or Lithuanian student he was confronted with a dilemma;
either go abroad to study, or enrol in a Russian university. ... one of the
first edicts of the Czar closed every Polish and Lithuanian university.” SP10
At their father’s suggestion, Joseph and
his brother Victor enrolled in the Hory-Horki Institute of Agriculture near Orsza
in Russia, similar in distance from their home town as Melbourne is to Geelong.
But being more interested in mathematics Joseph was a reluctant student and
after two years changed to engineering. The only vacancy for engineering was at
the Military Academy of Engineering in St. Petersburg. He enlisted in the
Russian Army and completed his studies there. St. Petersburg was then the
capital of Russia and much further away from home than the Institute of Agriculture.
(Today it’s about a ten hour drive.)
St
Petersburg
The years at St Petersburg have been
described by some authors as “the saddest period” of Joseph’s life, “years
marked by a crisis of faith and searching for the meaning of life.” SP10
The main source of information about his
life, at that time, are letters he wrote to his brother Victor. I have no
access to these as they have not been published in English, so rely on snippets
quoted in other works. But it seems to me a particular selection of these
letters can be quoted to present a certain picture of Joseph in keeping with
the author’s intention: to present a saint in the making or simply a ‘typical’ young
man in his twenties, living and studying away from home. Let’s hear from Joseph
himself.
In letter number 2, often quoted, he
wrote, “I am inclined toward the vanities of this world and am seeking in them
a medicine for myself, but I do not find interior peace this way.” Perhaps the
ponderings of a saint-in-the-making for Joseph had a great capacity for self-reflection
and interior observation. He describes his condition as “a moral malaise” (SP11) and yet, in
that same letter, he wrote, “I would like to tell you a lot about a girl,
Marguerite, for whom I have completely lost my head. It is actually strange that
I have to go through such experiences every December; this year, last year and
also two years ago.” (2MC45
quoted as also Letter 2) Marguerite was an English actress whom he had met at
one of his visits to the theatre with other officers and noblemen.
He had previously been seriously
interested in a young lady called Celina but her mother objected to the
marriage. He later referred to this disappointment and wrote, “My heart has now
cooled down and I have little regret.”
TT12 However, with various failed relationships he
seems to grow cynical about marriage. He wrote, “Is there anything more
enjoyable than the unity of two beings when they give themselves to each other
fully and totally. However, the whole idealistic picture quickly disappears
while we are experiencing the reality of life with all its meaningless details.
Indeed, the world can deeply disappoint us, so every time I was close to
achieving something significant, I quickly realised that actually it meant
nothing; just emptiness.” Even in the greatest happiness on earth, “there is
always some void, which nothing and nobody could really fill ... In my case, I
feel that I will never be able to fulfil myself, as I will always be lacking
something.” 2MC47
He recognises his
lack of inner peace and senses the meaningless of life but can find no remedy.
After graduating, he remained at the
Academy for eighteen months as a Professor of Mathematics and was promoted to
rank of Lieutenant. During this time he suffered a serious illness and an operation. He
wrote, “I’m sitting in my room all day, my head shrouded in bandages, I wait
for the end of my treatment with a patience and resignation that is not at all
like me. .... My diversion consists in reading and meditations; ... when I
consider the piles of books I have read and the knowledge I have gained, I feel
like a crook who steals from others and I don’t give anything to anybody. That
uselessness of my life is often a cause of remorse for me: what consoles me in
my tranquillity, that I have good will.”
TT21
“In the spring of that year, [1857 at the
age of 22].... Joseph was attending Mass with a sermon preached by a famous
French Dominican, Dominic Souaillard. After the Mass, strange emotions began to
fill his heart. On his way home, while passing the Catholic church of St
Stanislaus, he felt a strong need to go inside the church. And then something
unexpected happened, as he writes in the Memoirs: I knelt down near the confessional, but unfortunately there was no
priest in it, nor was there a soul in the church. I began to weep.” 2MC48
Some see this as his definitive moment of
conversion, however, a month later he wrote in a letter to a friend, “In these
last days of Carnival, let me speak to you about some worldly things, because
tomorrow Lent will begin with its huge torrent of sermons that we will have to
listen to, and other pious acts of Christian repentance and penance, which will
imprison for forty days my freedom of thinking.” 2MC49
Also in his memoirs he writes of his time
in St Petersburg, “I abandoned religious practices, but from that time a
craving for these things awakened in my soul. But I was not faithful to that
interior voice.” 2MC 44 9 (I haven’t been able to place this quote in the
time-line – he seems to be going to Mass and listening to sermons. He is also
reading devotional books.)
Working
for Railway company
He eventually requested to leave St
Petersburg and then worked as a surveyor on the Kursk-Kiev-Odessa section of
the Trans-Siberian Railway. SP writes, “Only then, as he traversed the swamps
and muddy fields of these regions of the Ukraine and Russia for his work, and
reflected in solitude, did he discover interior peace.”
He wrote to his brother Victor, “In this
solitude I succeeded in forming interior peace within myself, and I confess to
you sincerely that this continual work with myself and on myself, far removed
from people, produced a great change for the good. I could fully acknowledge
the value of familiar religious ideas, and, finally, I turned toward them.” SP11
He also met ordinary Russian people and
was deeply touched by them. In particular an elderly Orthodox clergyman/sacristan,
with whom he had regular contact. He told Joseph: I live from your prayers, and you live from mine. Joseph was so
struck by this man that he even wrote down his words in Russian. 2MC49
Brest-Litowski
Fortress
In November 1860, at the age of 25, he transferred
to the fortress of Brest-Litowski and became the Engineer Superintendent for
Maintenance. Eighteen months later he was appointed as Captain of the General Staff.
SP
writes, “At Brest, Joseph took note of the sorry plight of Catholics [in
communion with Rome], persecuted by czarist powers that often succeeded in involving
even the Orthodox Russian church.... In his heart he always had a very vivid
desire for the union of the churches. In Brest he also saw the sad plight of
youth, especially the poor who could not even study because the czarist
government had closed the Polish schools. Joseph then took it upon himself to
found a little Sunday school in which he himself became a teacher.” SP12
During a vacation he witnessed a patriotic
demonstration against Russian domination at Warsaw in connection with the
funeral of the Polish Prince, Adam Czartoryski. He was becoming increasingly
aware of the state’s persecution of the church, and of the Polish people, and
increasingly uncomfortable being in the Russian military. He was developing a
compassionate other-centered approach to life. SP12
He
wrote around that time, “It is only in prayer – if indeed one still knows how
to pray – that one is able to find peace, if only for a few moments. God gives
courage and perseverance to the unhappy and the suffering. I’m sadder at the
lot of the blind who reject suffering and seek comfort in diversions, which
they ought to avoid.” TT25
Perhaps
identifying his younger self who was “inclined toward the vanities of this
world” and “seeking in them a medicine for myself” at a time of life that he
felt “I will never be able to fulfil myself, as I will always be lacking
something.” 2MC47
January
Insurrection: 1863
Joseph relates events leading up to his
involvement in the insurrection in 1863 which is referred to, in history books,
as the “January Insurrection.”
He writes, “... I saw Russian Soldiers on
Sundays and Feast days singing insulting anti-Polish songs. A young artist came
to see me one day and talked to me about insurrection. He advised me to visit
Warsaw and meet the leaders of the revolutionary movement. I took his advice,
but the man I spoke to was such a demagogue that I got up and left. I had never
come across anyone with such theories. Events followed one another quite
rapidly. At the beginning of the year 1863, a National [Revolutionary] Government
was set up in Warsaw and a state insurrection was proclaimed.” TT29
Shortly afterwards, he writes, that in Vilnius,
the National Government representative “was replaced constantly because the
police had caught the members in a net thrown widely across the country.” TT32
To cut a long story short, he always felt
the insurrection would fail. He knew the might of the Russian army. However, he
wrote, “All the details were not immediately evident to me but the general
situation was quite clear. You had to give yourself and sacrifice yourself
without hope of success but only from a sense of duty. Others were sacrificing
themselves, could I be allowed to remain indifferent?” TT32/33
According to Timothy Tierney, he continued
to have qualms about becoming involved and needed to consult a confessor before
making a final decision. TT33
He made his decision and in May that year,
he resigned from the Russian Army and returned to Vilnius which he described as
“a gigantic prison” presumably meaning as it was controlled by the occupying
forces. He joined the revolutionary movement and was co-opted to become
Minister of War for the Vilnius region.
So he was now an ex-Russian Army officer
working as Minister of War against the Russian occupation.
During the coming months, his spiritual
journey led to a significant event on August 15, the Feast of the Assumption:
he went to confession. In most writing about St Raphael much is made of this event. He himself says, in a letter to a
friend, “after 10 years of desertion, I have returned to the bosom of the
church – I was at confession and great good it did me; I boast about it to you,
because I consider this return of mine to religious ideas to be an important
event in my inner life.” 1MtC45
Timothy Tierney
writes at length about the circumstance around this event, the influence of his
sister Mary, and his mother Sophia. He wanted to get a crucifix from Mary to give
as a keepsake to a prisoner but Mary’s condition was that he could have it only
if he went to confession. TT42/43
Seven months
later, in March 1864, he was arrested in his home at midnight, by the Russian
authorities, TT51 and imprisoned in a former Dominican monastery commandeered
by the authorities. He was sentenced to death by firing squad but his sentence
was commuted to 10 years forced labour. According to one of the
insurrectionists, “The Russians themselves called him a Polish saint. And it
was this reputation that saved Kalinowski from the gallows. [The officer who
had ordered his arrest] wanted to hang him at all cost, but one of his generals
pointed out that the Poles and even many Russians venerated him as a saint; and
consequently, if he were hanged, he would be venerated as a martyr. SP f/n 59 to avoid this outcome he was allowed to live.
If the dates are
correct, it seems that over the seven months since his confession/conversion
(according to some), while being involved with his fellow Poles in his position
of Ministry of War, he had developed a reputation of being a saint. And this
was before he went into exile and developed his altruism. People used to say of
him “Here comes the saint.” [This may have been during his time of exile rather
than at this point.]
Exile: 1864 – 1874
Joseph writes, “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 Vilna 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.” SP14
Joseph
describes one particular place along the way. “The city of Perm was a place
where they assembled the condemned, and from there they were dispersed
throughout eastern Russia. Near the same city of Perm and finally in the Far
East, in the immense plains beneath and beyond the Urals, vast and boundless
cemeteries were made for tens of thousands of victims who had been taken from
the heart of their mother country. There they are buried forever!” SP15
He
wrote in a letter to his family, “Outside of prayer I have nothing to offer to
my God. I can’t fast, I have hardly any alms to give, I’m unable to work. The
only thing remaining for me is to pray and to suffer. But never before have I
ever had such great treasures and I desire nothing more.” SP 15
Ten months after leaving Vilnius they arrived in Usolye. Timothy Tierney
writes, “In the small impoverished town of Usolye they found in place the huge
boilers which were used for evaporating the water in order to make salt. These
were situated on a spacious island formed by two branches of the river Angara.
It would also be the site of their prison which consisted of a large chamber
designed to hold 60 to 80 people. Families, however, were billeted in homes in
the town along the banks of the river.”
TT74
“Their job on the island was to extract the salt crystals from the
boilers after evaporation. They also had to collect various deposits of lime,
marl and other minerals from the containers and dispose of them. This was an
extremely difficult job as the deposits strongly adhered to the inside of the
boilers. If you were unable to accomplish this task then you would have to pay
someone... to do it for you.” This quote raises the issue of money. Apparently
the exiles needed money and Joseph regularly petitioned his family for assistance.
They scraped together what they could and sent it to him. He mostly gave it
away to others who were with him in exile.
Later on, “the prisoners were allowed to leave the island and live
in houses previously used by government employees.” TT74 The work too changed
over the years and a degree of ‘freedom’ developed within limitations.
The Vatican website says, “With an admirable strength of spirit,
patience, and love for his fellow exiles, he knew how to instil into them the
spirit of prayer, serenity and hope, and to give material help together with a
word of encouragement.”
In 1868, four years after beginning his exile, Joseph was dispensed
from hard labour and became a ‘deportee’.
TT88 More than a year later, with this new
classification, he moved to Irkutsk and found work tutoring students. It seems
deportees had to support themselves financially. In 1871-1872, as a deportee,
he also conducted meteorological research for the Siberian subdivision of the
Russian Geographical Company.
TT90 and also participated in other scientific
research.
He
was finally granted his freedom on February 2, 1874, however, the impact of
those years and the Russian occupation followed him. He felt compelled to earn
a living and repay to some extent his financial debt to his family. His vocation
to the religious life was not easy to pursue. “All religious monasteries in
Poland were suppressed by the occupiers, and no religious order could admit
novices. For Joseph there remained only one possibility: migrating to the
West.” SP16
To the West
He migrated to Paris and took up the position of tutor to the young
Prince Augustus Czartoryski. During the time he spent with him, the prince was
diagnosed with tuberculosis and Joseph accompanied him to various health
destinations in France, Switzerland, Italy, and other parts of Europe. Joseph was
a major influence on the young prince (known as “Gucio”), who later became a
priest in the Salesian Order and was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 2004.
In a letter to his parents late in 1876, Joseph relates his choice
for the Carmelite Order, “a year ago too, I heard a voice that sounded only
like an echo, from beyond the grille of a Carmelite monastery. That very voice
was probably the most serious one I have ever heard in my life; it was directed
at me, and now I have accepted it as my deliverance, sent to me by the most infinite
Mercy of God.” The voice was Sr. Maria Czartoryska, the aunt of Gucio, and
Joseph had met her only once before when he had accompanied the young prince on
a visit to the Carmelite convent in Cracow. Shortly afterwards, he received
from her, ‘when he least expected it’, the words of St Teresa’s bookmark
prayer: May nothing disturb you.”. He wrote to his parents, “Every day I
strengthen myself with the lines of Saint Teresa.” 1MC46
In a letter to this Carmelite nun, written in July 1877, four months
before entered Carmel he wrote, “It is purely this thought of penance that
leads me to Carmel, and I cast aside every other thought. So in reading what I
have written here, please accept these words of mine as the literal truth,
rather than looking for any expression of humility in them.” 1MC46
Life in Carmel
From the
time of his ordination to his death, he worked to promote Carmel in Poland. He
founded monasteries of friars and convents of nuns. He served as Prior and made
provincial visits to the nuns. He was a sought after spiritual director and
spent long hours hearing confession. He provided supportive pastoral care for
all those who sought it.
To fill out his later spirituality, I’ll read two rather lengthy
extracts. A letter to a friend Helena, who was on her own with four children
while her husband was away. This
is a rather poetic letter with an emphasis on the different stages of life, and
her current situation as a wife and mother. TT292
And an address to a community of sisters in
his role of Provincial Visitor. His emphasis here is on the love between the
sisters in the community. TT303/4/5
Close
In
2007, one hundred years after his death, the Polish Teresian Carmel observed a
Year of St Raphael.
I’ll
finish with the closing words for a letter by the two Polish Provincials, from
the Province of Cracow and the Province of Warsaw. “We extend to everyone our
wish that the year 2007, the Year of St Raphael, will bear fruit in numerous
encounters with the saint and a deeper delving into the mysteries of his life.
In them, God is hidden. And this is, after all, the mission of the saints – to
lead us to God.’ 2MC 41/42
References
1MC
= Mount Carmel: A Review of the Spiritual Life, Volume 55/3, July – September
2007
2MC
= Mount Carmel: A Review of the Spiritual Life, Volume 55/4, October – December
2007
TT
= Timothy Tierney OCD, Saint Raphael
Kalinowski (Apprenticed to Sainthood in Siberia), Balboa Press, 2016
SP
= Szczepan Praskiewicz OCD, Saint Raphael Kalinowski: an Introduction to
His Life and Spirituality, ICS Publications, 1998
Disclaimer: I’ve done my best to be accurate in the
story presented here but found it difficult to reconcile varying accounts and
certain discrepancies in the time line in different references. I still have
questions myself about the sequence of events, particular around his
‘conversion’. I’d encourage you to do your own reading and delve deeper into
the mysteries of his life that can lead us to God.
Bernadette Micallef
Carmelite Conversation
Wednesday 6th November 2019
The Carmelite Centre Melbourne.
