Feast: 19 November
Canonized: 17 November, 1991
“God refuses only the person who does not admit his own weakness; He sends away only the unhappy proud person. You must "hold him" well and strongly, with a poor spirit, with a poor heart, with a life entirely poor.”
Today is the memoria of St. Raphael of St. Joseph Kalinowski.
He was a Polish Discalced Carmelite friar. He was born Józef Kalinowski to Polish parents Andrew and Josepha Kalinowski in the city of Vilnius in present day Lithuania.
He did his studies at the Academy of Military Engineering and became a Lieutenant in the Russian Military Engineering Corps in 1857. A Polish engineer and freedom fighter, he was exiled to Siberia, and became the restorer of Carmel in Poland. St. Raphael was ordained as priest at Czerna on 15 January, 1882 where he served as Prior.
He served the Discalced Carmelite Order for thirty years, working to unite the Eastern Christians during a time of tension and distrust. He was a devout leader among his Carmelite brothers, and his passion for reconciliation drew him to his flock's confessional for hours on end. As a champion of Christian unification, St. Raphael built his life on St. Teresa's words: “God alone suffices”.
He founded monasteries in Premislia (1884) and Leopoli (1888). In 1899, St. Raphael was named Visitator and Vicar Provincial of these monasteries.
In his seventy-two years of life, St. Raphael was a teacher, engineer, prisoner of war, royal tutor, and a Discalced Carmelite friar and priest. He completed his 'Memoirs 1805-1887' at the request of his superiors, detailing his life as a Discalced Carmelite and ecumenical Christian leader. His other books are Central European Olympiad, A: The Mathematical Duel.
In 1864, St. Raphael was arrested by the Russian authorities and sentenced to death. He was imprisoned in a former Dominican monastery. By his death in 1907, St. Raphael was regarded as a great saint throughout Poland and Lithuania.
Pope John Paul II declared his boyhood hero a saint in St. Peter's Basilica which is also St. Raphael’s place of burial.
What caught my attention about this Carmelite Saint is that he read only two books - the Gospels in the morning and the Carmelite Rules in the evening! I also want to do this!
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