Bishop’s Approval of Emerging Dominican Congregation Brings Great Joy
Wielowieś and Przemyśl are in the southeastern part of present-day Poland. (Adapted from Google map)
This is the continuation of the story of the life of the Mother Maria Kolumba, foundress of the Dominican Sisters of the Immaculate Conception. In our previous installment, Sister Kolumba received the encouragement of the Master General of the Dominican Order to found a Dominican convent in Poland. She also met Father Julian Leszczyński, who was looking for Dominican sisters for his parish in Wielowieś, in southeast Poland.
Father Leszczyński, who had dabbled with drawings of Dominican sisters as a child, was very happy when Sister Kolumba sent him Statutes of the Third Order in Polish, along with the news of the blessing about her plans of Most Rev. Adam Jasiński, the new bishop of Przemyśl.
The bishop placed the project under the supervision and guidance of Fr. Leszczyński, and advised Mother Kolumba to privately open a novitiate for new candidates without waiting for the approval of the Austrian government or the Diocese. The plan was to find their place in the Dominican Constitution, submit their plans to the Dominican Chapter meeting, then obtain approval first of the Bishop, and finally of the government.
Plaque at the Church of St. Gertrude and St. Michael the Archangel, Wielowieś. On the plaque is the history of the building of the church, and the name Kolumba Róża Bialecka appears in the middle.
“Pleasant Moments of My Life”
Having received her letter, Fr. Jasiński wrote, “I consider one of the most pleasant moments of my life this one when I received the letter of Sister along with the Statutes.” He asked that Sister Kolumba and her mother come to Wielowieś. They came on Sept. 23, 1860, and surveyed the village to find a place to found the Sisters of the Third Order of St. Dominic.
Following the tradition in this part of the world of the nobility helping religious communities, Countess Gabryela Tarnowska, a widow and an owner of properties in Dzików to which Wielowieś belonged administratively, gave a promise, along with her son, to provide her protection. She came with her son, Count Jan Tarnowski, to a rectory in Wielowieś declaring her and her son’s readiness to both give up their land so that a cloister could be erected there and to offer construction material from the forests.
Her biographer writes,
Oh, how grateful Sister Maria Kolumba was towards the Lord when the Most Reverend Father Leszczyński passed her information that Divine Providence obviously protected the commenced work! How happy was the [Dominican Master General] Most Reverend Father General Jandel on hearing the news on the beginnings from her! He was so eager to behold in our country active Dominican Sisters as his heart was burning with zealousness to spread God’s glory.
Taken from Chapter IV, pgs. 21-22 of the Life of the Reverend Mother Róża Kolumba Białecka, by Sr. Benwenuta Pasławska, Order of St. Dominic’s Sisters, Cracow, Poland, translated into English in 2007.
Click for Google map of Poland.
