21 Facts About Raphael Kalinowski

Raphael of St Joseph Kalinowski was a Polish Discalced Carmelite friar.

Raphael Kalinowski was a teacher, engineer, prisoner of war, royal tutor, and priest, who founded many Carmelite convents around Poland after their suppression by the Russians.

Raphael Kalinowski was the second son of Andrew Kalinowski, an assistant superintendent professor of mathematics at the local Institute for Nobles.

Raphael Kalinowski next attended the School of Agriculture at Hory-Horki, near Orsha.

Raphael Kalinowski determined never to sentence anyone to death nor to execute any prisoner.

Raphael Kalinowski's family intervened, and the Russians, fearing that their Polish subjects would revere him as a political martyr, commuted the sentence to 10 years in katorga, the Siberian labor camp system.

Three years after arriving in Usolye, Raphael Kalinowski moved to Irkutsk.

Raphael Kalinowski participated in research expedition of Benedykt Dybowski to Kultuk, on the shore of Lake Baikal.

Raphael Kalinowski returned to Warsaw in 1874, where he became a tutor to 16-year-old Prince August Czartoryski.

The prince was diagnosed with tuberculosis in 1876, and Raphael Kalinowski accompanied him to various health destinations in France, Switzerland, Italy, and Poland.

Raphael Kalinowski was a major influence on the young man, who later became a priest and was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 2004.

Later Raphael Kalinowski decided to travel to the city of Brest where he began a Sunday school at the fortress in Brest-Litovsk where he was a captain, he became increasingly aware of the state persecution of the church, and of his native Poles.

Raphael Kalinowski was ordained a priest at Czerna in 1882 by Bishop Albin Dunajewski, and in 1883 he became prior of the convent at Czerna.

Raphael Kalinowski founded multiple convents around Poland and Ukraine, most prominent of which was one in Wadowice, Poland, where he was elected prior.

Raphael Kalinowski installed a convent of Discalced Carmelite nuns in Przemysl in 1884, and in Lvov in 1888.

From 1892 to 1907 Raphael Kalinowski worked to document the life and work of Theresa Marchocka, a 17th-century Discalced Carmelite nun, to assist with her beatification.

Raphael Kalinowski was a noted spiritual director of both Catholic and Russian Orthodox faithful.

Raphael Kalinowski's remains were originally kept in the convent's cemetery, but this caused difficulties because of the large number of pilgrims who came visiting.

Raphael Kalinowski's remains was later translated to a tomb, but the pilgrims went there instead, often scratching with their hands at the plaster, just to have some relic to keep with them.

Raphael Kalinowski's remains were then moved to a chapel in Czerna, where they remain.

Raphael Kalinowski is considered a patron saint of soldiers and officers of Poland and of Polish exiles in Siberia.