Historical Calendar: August 25, 1888 – Adam Chmielowski establishes the Albertin Assembly

Anniversary of the appointment by St. Brother Albert, Assembly of the Albertines.

Today in our calendar we will look at the life and activities of Adam Chmielowski, known as Brother Albert.

Adam Chmielowski was born in 1845 in the Podkrakowski village of Igołomia. He was the boy of an authoritative of Wojciech and Józefa from the Borzysławska house. He graduated from simple school in Warsaw. Then, thanks to the aid of godfather Adam Kłodnicki, he left for St. Petersburg to join the Cadet Corps. He abandoned his career in the Tsarist army and returned to his country, where he graduated from junior advanced school and began his studies at the Polytechnical and Agricultural and Forestry Institute in Puławy.

He met quite a few interesting people there; he besides engaged in a secret activity, consisting primarily in the sale and reading of patriotic books banned by the authorities (e.g. Mickiewicz's works). After the outbreak of the January uprising, he joined with his colleagues Leon Frankowski, by whom he fought in a skirmish close Kurow. He went to the group of Marian Langiewicz, under the command of whom he took part in the winning battles of Chrobr and Grochowis.

He then crossed the Austrian border with his squad and was arrested. He was sentenced to prison in Olomouc, but escaped from it with the aid of a local Catholic priest. He returned to the country and joined Sigismund Chmielenski's squad, where he served as a cavalryman.

During the conflict of Mełkhov of September 30, 1863, he was severely wounded and taken prisoner. In the Tsaric lazaret, he was amputated without anesthetizing the threatened gangrene left leg. He then stayed in the infirmary in Koniecpol, where he was awaiting trial for his participation in the uprising. Thanks to the Polish staff, however, he contacted a household that pulled him out of fear of repression, but had to leave the country. He went to France to proceed his rehabilitation with financial assistance from Polish organizations supporting war veterans.

He received a modern leg replacement for those times. He returned to the country in 1865 after announcing amnesty for erstwhile insurgents. He started his studies at the Warsaw drawing school, but he interrupted it and left for Ghents, then Paris and yet Munich where he studied painting. The paintings he painted were an effort to make his own style, resembling later impressionism. He knew respective large Polish artists of that era, e.g. Maximilian and Alexander Gierymski, Leon Wyczółkowski and Józef Chełmoński.

Over time, he became more and more religious, as seen in his next works. Thanks to the aid of his friends, he exhibited them for sale in Krakow. In 1877 he left for Italy, and then moved to Lviv, where he began to make images of sacred themes. His most celebrated work is the painting Ecce Homo depicting the smitten Christ with a crown of thorns on his head. In 1880 he decided to join the Jesuit order, but was removed from the novitiate due to a intellectual breakdown.

The reason for this was the imposition of trauma associated with the amputation of the leg, the destiny of the fallen Homeland, the unsuccessful effort to quit smoking, deepening unbelief in their own strength, loneliness and deficiency of a life goal. He went to a intellectual institution in Kulparków, where doctors found his condition to be hopeless medically. He was devoted to his family. For respective months he continued to be depressed, from which he was drawn talks with local priest Leopold Pogorzelski.

Through his aid and prayer, he regained his joy and intent in life. He became active with the Franciscan Terciarian idea. As part of it, he worked among agrarian poverty, and thanks to his painting skills he restored churches, roadside crosses and chapels. The local tsarist authorities regarded him as a dangerous provoker and threatened to send him to Siberia, which, in the case of his disability, meant a certain death. For this reason he moved to the Austrian partition, to Krakow. That's where he started working with homeless people, alcoholics and beggars.

He took care of them, organized food and shelter. In 1887 he joined the Franciscan order and assumed the name Albert. As time passed, he gave up painting completely, sacrificing himself to the mediocre with whom he lived in the city heating plant. It was not a typical service to supply them with food and shelter to proceed in misery. Brother Albert was an opponent of alms, claiming it was an excuse for the rich to suppress their remorse.

He thought that alternatively of fish, you should give people a fishing rod. He focused on getting his wards out of the pit they were in. He organized shelters for them, but most of all, he fought alcoholism and prostitution, gave life advice and got jobs with local entrepreneurs. His activity was very effective and received designation by both the Church and local authorities. In 1888 he received approval to set up the Assembly of the Albertin Brothers, which he besides did on August 25.

The success of the movement caused him to establish a duplicate assembly of the Sisters of Alberta in 1891. After respective years in the larger cities of Galicia, specified as the Lviv and the Tarns, there have already been a number of centres working to aid the poor, according to his instructions. By the outbreak of planet War I, 20 specified institutions were created. Brother Albert died in December 1916 in an opinion of holiness.

Previous entry from our calendar is available Here.