Remembering Venerable Paul Smolikowski, C.R.
This month the Congregation of the Resurrection honors the memory of a remarkable priest and Resurrectionist: Father Paul was a Resurrectionist priest whose life spanned the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth.
Father Paul Smolikowski’s devotion to Christ and the Church is legendary. Recently, he has been honored by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, a Vatican office which investigates the claims of those who advocate for Christians who have lived holy lives. That Congregation has determined after detailed investigation that Father Paul lived a life of joyful heroic virtue. He has been listed among the “Servants of God” and can now be called “Venerable.”
In 1867, Paul Smolikowski was 18 years old and intending to become a Jesuit until he met the small group of Resurrectionists who were teaching at his seminary in Rome. He loved the idea of joining a new Congregation like the Resurrectionists because he felt the fire of God’s love kindled in the hearts of those dedicated priests and brothers. He felt that same enthusiasm in his own heart and was thrilled to join them in their proclamation of the hope of the Resurrection.
He loved the vibrant men who taught him and was inspired by one of the founders of the Resurrectionists who was still living, Father Peter Semenenko. Paul learned the depth and the power of this new religious community from this man.
Some forty years before, Father Peter with several others had banded together in 1842 to form a new movement in the Church. It’s purpose was to bring fresh hope to Church parishes. With the celebration of the Holy Eucharist as the center of the social life of parishes, the founding group intended to create associations and groups gathered around the parish who would live the Gospel of Jesus in an every-day way.
Resurrectionists from the beginning taught in schools and wrote theological works in local languages. Paul saw in Father Peter Semenenko, C.R. something of the fiery urgency of the Gospel which burned in his own heart. Bright and deeply spiritual, the old founder’s humility and theology made a profound impression on the young seminarian. Father Peter unfolded to Paul a new way to help people understand the power of God’s love and the hope that Jesus’ Resurrection brings to the human heart. Venerable Paul wrote over two hundred books and guides to the spiritual life, all of them based on the hope of conversion and resurrection.
Thanks to men like Venerable Paul Smolikowski, the mission of Resurrectionists continues in more than a dozen countries, including Canada, and the latest, Tanzania in Africa.
We ask you to pray for vocations to the Congregation of the Resurrection so that many young men will see in the life and work of Resurrectionists, a sign of their own vocation. May Our Lady, Mother of Graces, inspire many young men to give their hearts in devotion to the Church.