St. Raphael Kalinowski had a brilliant mind and a faithful heart that he used to spread the faith in Poland at the end of the 1800s. He survived ten years in a labor camp in Siberia before becoming a Carmelite priest.
He was born in 1835 to a noble family in Vilnius—his father taught mathematics and served as superintendent of the local boarding school for nobles. Raphael attended this school and graduated with honors in 1850.
Opportunities for further education were limited, so Raphael joined the Russian army that he might study at an engineering academy. He later was assigned as professor of mathematics at the academy, and helped to design railroads.
He was promoted to captain, but his heart was with the oppressed Poles of his homeland. He resigned from the army and joined resistance efforts, helping to lead a major uprising. He was captured and sentenced to die by firing squad. When his family intervened, Russian authorities feared that if they killed him, he would inspire more trouble as a political martyr. They sentenced him to ten years in a Siberian labor camp instead.
Over the course of nine months, he was forcibly marched to a labor camp in Siberia—many did not survive the journey, but Raphael had a hidden strength, and became a leader to other prisoners. He labored in salt mines there for ten years.
After his release, he returned to Poland, and became a tutor to the young prince, August Czartoryski. The prince suffered from tuberculosis, and Raphael accompanied him as he sought medical treatment and favorable climates; he had a profound influence on the young man’s life. The prince eventually became a priest and was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 2004.
Throughout his travels, Raphael became aware of the Russian persecution of the Church and of the people of his homeland. He entered a community of Carmelites in 1877 and was ordained a priest five years later. His leadership skills were recognized, and he was named superior of the community. He went on to found a number of new monasteries throughout Poland.
Raphael died of tuberculosis at the age of 72 in Wadowice, Poland—the same town in which Pope John Paul II was born in 14 years later. His tomb became a place of pilgrimage—so many people would take handfuls of dirt from his grave that the nuns who oversaw the cemetery had to continually replace the earth and plants there.
Pope John Paul II counted Raphael as one of his boyhood heroes, and canonized him a saint in 1991—the first member of this Carmelite community to be named a saint since its founder, St. John of the Cross. His image is used here with permission from Catholic.org.
St. Raphael Kalinowski, you were the hero of Pope John Paul II who survived a Siberian labor camp to spread the faith in Poland—pray for us!