Christmas message of Blessed Honoratus Koźmiński in circular letters to hidden congregations

Abstract

In November 1864 Tsar Allesander II ordered the suppression of the Warsaw convent, and the Capuchin friars were shunted to the Zakroczym convent where they continued their pastoral and patriotic activities. But that state of affairs continued for a short time. In 1871 they were banned from carrying out pastoral work and their freedom of movement outside the convent was restricted. The fundamental space of his priestly efforts became the confessional. Despite his internment, Father Honoratus did not lose his apostolic fervor and implemented new forms of religious action, especially through the foundation of the new congregations of hidden life. Locked up in the convent he wrote to the sisters and superiors a considerable amount of the simple letters, as well as circular letters. The latter count 85 documents in which 42 letters were written on the occasion of Christmas in the years 1888-1909.

In his epistolary production Father Koźmiński contemplating the mystery of the Nativity discovered and pointed out to the sisters the fundamental virtues of the Son of God: humility, poverty, mortification, meekness, childhood, simplicity, hiddenness and love. Next, the Blessed moved on to the life of St. Francis of Assisi, who always remained as a living model of true love and Christ-likeness. Then he would address the sisters with a spiritual exhortation that they should live in a manner similar to the Seraphic Father. At the end of the letters, the Founder of the new religious congregations urged the sisters to fervent prayer and wished them perseverance in their vocation throughout their lives.

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