On the weekend of October 20-22, 2023, an event called “Feast of the Piarist Laity” took place in Licheń. This year it was the eighth edition of the meeting for lay people working in the Piarist works of the Province. The meeting was attended by representatives of 9 Piarist presences, this time only from Poland: Jelenia Góra – Ciep lice, Bolszew, Bolesławiec, Elbląg, Katowice, Kraków, Łowicz, Poznań and Rzeszów. The motto was: “My place – the Piarist community“.
Father Sławomir Dziadkiewicz, delegate of the Father Provincial for the formation and charismatic integration of the laity, highlighted two general themes during the celebration: “First of all, let us consider our vocation, the Piarist vocation, the vocation of the laity engaged in the Piarist mission, in the awareness that the Lord has not placed us in this Piarist community by chance” – said Fr. Stanislaus Konarski, the Provincial Provincial for Formation and Charismatic Integration of the Laity.
Stanislaus Konarski, the most famous Piarist of the Age of Enlightenment. This year we are celebrating the 250th anniversary of his death. Prof. Paweł Zając O.M.I. gave a lecture on this topic: “The figure of Father Stanisław Konarski in the background of the era”. Prof. Ryszard Mączyński spoke about “Collegium Nobilium – the ingenious plan of Stanisław Konarski”. There was also a round table on “Konarski yesterday and today”, in which teachers from our schools took part, namely Janusz Podwika from Krakow and Andrzej Filistyński from Bolesławiec.
At the end of the meeting, Father Provincial Mateusz Pindelski presented the provincial prizes. The “Sapaere auso pro Professoribus” prize was awarded to Elżbieta Cywińska from the school in Łowicza. On the other hand, the “Calasanz and the Child” prize was awarded to Ewa Komuńska and Sebastian Popiel from the school in Łowicza, Paulina Famulska for education on the platform of non-formal education in the Wieczysta commune in Kraków, Iwona Berniak, who works at the school in Kraków, and Ewa Alexandrowicz and Małgorzata Barbacka from Poznań.
