User:Wistula/Sisters of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary (1857)

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Virgin Mary-statue in the school chapel of the congregations educational center in Warsaw Ursynów

The Congregation of the Sisters of the Immaculate Conception

The Congregation of the Sisters of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary (in short: Siostry Niepokalanki) was founded by Mother Josepha Karska (1823-1860), and by Bl. MotherMarcelina Darowska (1827-1911) with the help of father Hieronim Kajsiewicz (CR) in 1857 in Rome. Mother Marcelina, in a very crucial moment in the history of our country- 1863, moved the congregation to Jazlowiec (now Ukraine). The spiritual aim of the congregation is: Divine Glory, love as an answer to Love and accepting and fulfilling God's Will.

The mission of the Congregation is to serve the Catholic Church by prayer and renewal of the nation via formation of women. Sisters are involved in upbringing of the young generation of girls. They run kindergartens, primary schools - both for boys and girls and secondary boarding schools for girls; nowadays in Poland there are seven schools run by the sisters. Teaching religion in public schools, organizing recollections and religious retreats for individuals and groups and helping families is another their concern. Sisters devote themselves to missionary work in Belarus and Ukraine. With particular love they spread the cult of Our Lady. The Congregation possesses two Marine Shrines in Szymanow (about 50 km from the capital city, Warsaw) - the Shrine of Our Lady of Jazlowiec and in Koscierzyna (north Poland) - the Shrine of Our Lady of Sorrows (a beautiful 15th-century Pieta, made of sandstone). Both sculptures were crowned with the papal crowns.

Jazlowiec (Lvov diocese) used to be the mother house until 1946. Since then it has been Szymanow, Poland

The Foundress Mother Marcelina Darowska was beatified by Pope John Paul II in Rome in 1996. Two sisters, Martyrs of the WWII, s. Marta Wolowska and s. Ewa Noiszewska were beatified in 1999 in Poland.

OUR LADY OF JAZLOWIEC

In Szymanow, not far from Warsaw (the capital city of Poland), in the general house of the Sisters of the Immaculate Conception of B.M.V., there is a statue of Our Lady that is famous for its graces, called Jazlowiecka.

"Only beauty and brightness..." wrote one of the students of the Art Academy in the book of the pilgrims. The classic idea of expressing everlasting beauty mixed in this effigy of Mary with the mystical thoughts and unspeakable spiritual richness. The physical charm of this statue is the carrier of the internal beauty, an expression of the highest, immaculate purity. Our Lady with her arms crossed on her chest, with a slightly bent head, full of concentration and internal silence, experiences the mystery of Annunciation. Barefoot, she is crushing the serpent's head. She is the victory, the triumph of chastity. Cardinal Primate Stefan Wyszynski's words describe her as "Purrissima, Integra" - The Purest, Untouched.

On the 12th of September 1999 there was a big celebration, the 60th anniversary of the crowning of Our Lady of Jazlowiec. Around her feet there were cavalrymen from Jazlowiec and Malopolska Region who have her as their Patron and the continuators of their traditions, the soldiers of the Polish Army. The graduates of the sisters' schools came from the farthest places of the world, as well as the present students of the schools. A great number of worshippers of Our Lady, who wanted to pay homage and give thanks for graces received due to her, came too

A beautiful statue of Immaculata was donated by Tomasz Oskar Sosnowski, a Polish neo-classical sculptor living in Rome.

The artist, an the inhabitant of the borderland, was working not for money but to for glory of Our Lady. In his works he often referred to themes devoted to the cult of the Virgin Mary, and after the declaration of the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception, he carved some similar statues of our Lady. One of them was given to the sisters opening a new house in Jaroslaw. Set in a beautiful altar, it attracted the faithful from the neighbourhood and farther places. Some years later Mother Marcalina Darowska ordered another to be placed in the main house of the congregation in Jazlowiec. In a letter dated January 18th, 1882 she wrote, "Everybody acknowledges its beauty. What is far nicer, it's good influence on all the children from different districts of our country confided to us, it makes them pray, warms up, lifts their hearts, wakes up and develops the sense of beauty, predilection to art. No wonder that an old friend of Polish children, I wanted such a statue in Jazlowiec."

On August 10th, 1883 Archbishop Zygmunt Szczesny Felinski solemnly blessed the statue set in the chapel in Jazlowiec. Since then the miraculous figure of Our Lady has been connected with the Sisters of the Immaculate Conception. In front of her, sisters took their vows and students and their families prayed, receiving numerous graces to this day including conversions, miraculous survivals, healings, and the fulfilment of prayers big and small.

The privilege to spread the cult of Our Lady of Jazlowiec around the Polish territories and beyond its borders was given to the Polish cavalry. The unusual connection of the Virgin Mary and the Polish Cavalry has its roots in the beginning of the World War I. The convent house, all its settlers and also her experienced soldiers had a three-day long baptism of fire, fighting for the first time on Polish ground. Attributing their victory to the intercession of Our Lady of Jazlowiec, they called her their Commander-in-chief, left votive offerings at her feet, and took her name as the heroic 14th Regiment of Jazlowiecki Uhlans. Every year they travelled 200km from Lwow, their Regiment headquarters, to the convent chapel to pay homage on December 8th, the day of her feast. The made their prayer to her the regimental anthem. The portrait of Our Lady, embroidered by the students of the school, decorated the banner of the 14th Regiment.

On July 9th 1939 there was a coronation of the miraculous statue with the papal crowns. It was preceded by a request to the Apostolic See in which there were 30 thousand signatures. In the Pope's brief (breve), the Holy Father Pius XII declared that he would honour the request "to strengthen all Poles' belief in God's Mother". He declared, "the statue of Blessed Mary Virgin is famous for its miracles and graces". On behalf of the Pope, the coronation was conducted by the Primate of Poland, Cardinal August Hlond. The coronation drew many thousands of pilgrims from the entire country and it served as a tribute to Immaculate Mary by members of different denominations. There were also many soldiers, the command of the Podolian Brigade Cavalry with their Commander-in-chief Kleeberg and Colonel Godlewski, the headquarters and the Regiments of Jazlowiec and Malopolska, and representatives of the Jazlowiec settlement (the soldiers-settlers on the far borderland). At the coronation there were local authorities, representatives of the nobility, and former prisoners once interned in the convent house during the Polish-Bolshevik war. Apart from them there were the graduates of the sisters' schools, present students, sisters' families and many friends of the congregation together with the worshippers of Our Lady of Jazlowiec: farmers, peasants and members of the Jazlowiec Family.

To crown a statue, which was not yet 50 years old, was an unusual occurrence and it was a proof of its following. Two months later World War II broke out, and the Cavalry of Jazlowiec went to fight near Wolka Weglowa under the banner of the Immaculate Mary.

The Second World War started a new period in the history of the cult of Our Lady of Jazlowiec. Medallions and holy pictures with her portrait were spread all over the world along with the wandering Polish soldiers. Besides the Uhlans of Jazłlowiec, God's Mother gained other worshippers such as the Regiment of the Cavalry of Malopolska, with the general Klemens Rudnicki in the foreground. Mary was very generous in giving graces, what is stated in the books of graces and seen due to numerous votive offerings.

In June 1946, sisters brought the miraculous statue to Szymanow, to the new general house of the congregation. "The Exile from Jazlowiec" stood at the verge of the capital city, "not without God's thought". The first pilgrim, the Primate of Poland Cardinal August Hlond, came to see her newly seated. His thoughts were remembered by his successor, also a great worshipper of Our Lady, Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski in his words: "The Holy Exile, as she came here, apparently was to tell us something".

The second crowning of Our Lady was on September 13th 1946 and it was performed by Rev. Konstanty Zukiewicz.

Since that day the old and new worshippers of Our Lady came to her feet, and many written volumes of books of graces describe her miraculous care.

In July 11, 1954 on the traditional feast of 'the Exile from Jazlowiec', the 15th anniversary of her coronation was conducted by bishop Kazimierz Kowalski from Chelm. The next anniversaries, the 25th (09.08.1964) and 40th (23.09.1979), were conducted by Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski. About the message of Our Lady, he said: "Our Lady is not only the Immaculate Conception in impeccable white, she is also God's Mother, all the fighting people's Patron. She, Immaculate Knight of the Living God became the patron of those all who are ready to devotion, sacrifices, to give their lives for noble ideals and everlasting values".

Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski prayed to the Lady of Jazlowiec many times and often mentioned her. During his internship in Komancza Monastery, he kept her picture and often looked at her. The miraculous Statue of Our Lady for him was the symbol "of this chastity, which is difficult to be expressed in words". About her, he wrote, "Whenever I was looking in your chapel at the statue of Mary of Jazlowiec - I have to admit - I could not keep my eyes for a long time on her, whom I would willingly call Purrissima, Integra. It seemed I was prejudicial to this Fullness while looking at her".

The 50th and 60th anniversaries of her coronation express that the cult of Our Lady of Jazlowiec expands in ever-widening circles. Under her care work is done in the sisters' houses who lead the schools in Szymanow, Wałbrzych, Nowy Sacz, Jarosław, Warszawa. The soldiers of the 1st Battalion 6th Brigade of Armoured Cavalry of Gen. Konstanty Plisowski fromStargard Szczeciński, and also the scouts from Sochaczew are cultivating the traditions of the Cavalry from Jazlowiec. In Szymanow, where numerous groups of pilgrims come, a new sanctuary of Our Lady and Blessed Mother Marcelina Darowska has been built recently. It is proof of the words written by one of the pilgrims: " By the foot of the Lady of Jazlowiec, Poland of the past, Poland of the present and Poland of the future is one Poland".

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  Die Schlossruine und das Kloster in Jazlowiec
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  Die Schlossruine und das Kloster in Jazlowiec

Others

Niepolanki win at Tarnopol (Ukraine) court in 2008

From article Yazlovets

In 1863 blessed Marcelina Darowska established the monastery of the Sisters of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the ruined castle donated for this purpose. The sisters ministered in education first in Yazlovets itself and then creating a network of rural elementary schools. The Statue of Immaculately Conceived Mother of God, consecrated by saint archbishop Sigismund Felix Feliński in 1883 in the monasteries chapel and in 1939 crowned by the Cardinal Primate of Poland August Hlond with a crown conferred by the Holy Father Servant of GodPius XII, soon became known for graces granted through the intercession of theBlessed Virgin.

External links

• Congregations website (in English)
• website of the Biały Klasztor w Nowym Sączu
• website of the Prywatne Liceum Ogólnokształcące Sióstr Niepokalanek in Szymanów

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Category:Catholic teaching orders
Category:Catholic religious orders established in the 19th century
Category:Catholic female orders and societies