Death by firing squad. This was the verdict given Josef Kalinowski after a formal declaration of his participation as war minister of Vilna (Lithuania) in the insurrection against Russian occupation in Poland.
Russia, not wanting him to be considered martyr, commuted the sentence to 10 years imprisonment at the Siberian Labor Camp.
On April 15, 1865, after nine months on foot, Josef reached the Salt Labor Camp of Usol.
Engineer at heart, soldier by necessity
Polish Lithuania in 1795 was divided by three foreign powers, Russia, Prussia and Austria.
Considered as injustice, patriots of Poland and Lithuania never accepted this. “As long as we live, Poland is not dead,” was a battle cry. This was the historical context when Josef was born to a noble family in Vilna.
Vilna was part of the Russian Empire when Josef was born on September 1, 1835. His father, Andrew, was assistant superintendent and professor of math at the local Institute of Nobles. His mother, Josephine Polonska, died a few months after Josef was born. They belong to szlachta, a noble family with high patriotic ideals in the kingdom of Poland.
Skillful in math, Josef wanted to become a civil engineer. Since Polish universities were closed, he had to pursue studies in Russia. Enrollment in engineering course was full, so he enrolled in Saint Petersburg School of Military Engineering.
Uprooted from his cultural and religious environment and studying at the military school was an emotional ordeal. He experienced a “crisis of faith searching for the meaning of life.”
Religious indifference prevailed, too. In 1853 he changed his course and attended Nicholayev Engineering Academy and Russian Army. Three years after, he was promoted second lieutenant. In 1857 he graduated in Russian Engineering Corps and worked as associate professor in math, and was promoted as full lieutenant.
Polish revolutionary
For decades in Russia, thousands of Catholics, priests and religious were persecuted, imprisoned or killed because of their faith. In 1863 and 1864 the tsar of Russia exiled in Siberia about 40,000 Poles, mostly Catholics.
Josef witnessed the injustices done to his people. He wrote: “I was no longer capable of wearing the Russian uniform while my heart was sick with the knowledge that the blood of my countrymen was being shed.”
Josef resigned from the Russian army in 1863 and joined the Polish insurrection against Russian occupation. He agreed to be the war minister of the region of Vilna. Aware of the power of the military forces of the tzar, he avoided military confrontations to prevent loss of lives among his people.
Arrested on March 24, 1864, he did not deny his participation in the uprisings, was incarcerated on April 9, 1864, and sentenced to death.
But since he might be considered a hero by the people, his life was spared. To the labor camp of Siberia, he was deployed to work for 10 years.
On exile, he developed a profound interior life. He became prayerful and became an inspiration to his fellow workers. He was considered by others as an angel to help them bear sufferings and loneliness. In the camp, he became sure of his true vocation—to be a religious.
He was assigned to work in the construction of the Kurs-Kiev Odessa Railway, then transferred to Brest, Litovsk, in 1860. He was promoted as captain in the Russian Army in 1862.
In 1871 and 1872 he was involved in the meterological research of a Russian Geographical Co., and in a research expedition to Kultuk in Lake Baikal.
He was released from Siberia in 1873 but exiled in Lithuania. He moved to Paris, France. He accepted the offer to tutor Augustus, son of Prince Ladislaus Czartoryski, who lives in Paris.
Saint Raphael of Saint Joseph Kalinowski
In 1877 Saint Raphael of Saint Joseph, the name given him as a religious person, was admitted to the Carmelite Priory in Linz and was ordained priest on January 15, 1882, at Czerna by the bishop of Krakow.
In 1883 he became the prior of the convent at Czerna. The following year, he founded a Discalced Carmelite Monastery in Premislia and another in Ukraine in 1888.
After he was named visitator and vicar provincial in 1889, he established a college, a church, monastery and convent in Wadowice, Poland. He also started to organize Catholic organizations.
As a contemplative, he reminded his brethren on the hallmarks of their serious formation and obligation, “to converse with God in all our actions, build a Carmelite life in Poland in solid bases of true prayer nourished by authority, silence recollection, realities that He first loved us.”
Fr. Raphael of Saint Joseph Kalinowski died on November 15, 1907, in Wadowice, Poland. Fourteen years, later Karol Wojtyla, now Saint John Paul II, was born in the same place.
Saint Raphael of Saint Joseph Kalinowski was beatified on June 22, 1983, and canonized on November 17, 1991, by then-Pope John Paul II.
He was the first friar to have been canonized in the Order of Discalced Carmelite since Saint John of the Cross (1542-1591).
His feast day is November 19.
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Santiago is a former regional director of the Department of Education National Capital Region. She is currently a faculty member of Mater Redemptoris Collegium in Calauan, Laguna, and of Mater Redemptoris College in San Jose City, Nueva Ecija.