November 19 - Saint Raphael Kalinowski

Quick Facts
  • Son of Andrew Kalinowski, prominent mathmatics professor at the College of Nobility, and Josepha Poionska Kalinowski.
  • Studied at his father's school.
  • Though he felt a call to the priesthood, Joseph decided on college first.
  • Studied zoology, chemistry, agriculture, and apiculture at the Institute of Agronomy in Hory Horki, Russia, and at the Academy of Military Engineering at Saint Petersburg, Russia.
  • Lieutenant in the Russian Military Engineering Corps in 1857.
  • Planned and supervised the construction of the railway between Kursk and Odessa.
  • Promoted to captain in 1862, stationed in Brest-Litovsk.
  • There he started, taught, and bore all the costs of a Sunday school, accepting anyone interested.
  • In 1863 he supported the Polish insurrection.
  • He resigned from the Russian army and became the rebellion's minister of war for the Vilna region; he took the commission with the understanding that he would never hand out a death sentence or execute a prisoner.
  • Arrested by Russian authorities on 25 March 1864.
  • In June 1864 he was condemned to death for his part in the revolt, but the authorities feared they would be creating a political martyr, and commuted his sentence to ten years forced labour in the Siberian salt mines; part of his sentence was spent in Irkutsk where his relics recently sanctified a new cathedral.
  • Released in 1873, he was exiled from his home region in Lithuania.
  • Moved to Paris, France, and worked as a tutor for three years.
  • In 1877 he finally answered the long-heard call to the religious life, and joined the Carmelite Order at Graz, Austria, taking the name Raphael.
  • Studied theology in Hungary, then joined the Carmelite house at Czama, Poland.
  • Ordained on 15 January 1882.
  • Worked to restore the Discalced Carmelites to Poland, and for church unity.
  • Founded a convent at Wadowice, Poland, c.1889.
  • Worked with Blessed Alphonsus Mary Marurek.
  • Noted spiritural director of both Catholics and Orthodox.
  • Enthusiastic parish priest, he spent countless hours with his parishioners in the confessional.