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Saint Brother Albert

(Adam Chmielowski, born and died in Poland, 1845 -1916)

- warm patriot, insurrectionist of 1863  (Polish National Uprising called January Uprising)
- talented painter
- heroic servant and father of the poor

Adam Chmielowski was a sensitive artist and a man of exceptional talent. For many years he searched for more and more mature dimensions of beauty, good and truth. He found these in other people, especially those who were the poorest, seeing in their faces the insulted image of Christ. This mystical experience was the foundation for his transformation. Cardinal Karol Wojtyła said about Adam Chmielowski “brought down on his knees before God’s majesty, knelt down before man’s majesty, the poorest and most disabled, before the majesty of the last beggar”

Brat Albert
Adam Chmielowski
Adam Chmielowski was born in a noble family and became an orphan at an early age. During his youth years, he lost his leg while taking part in the January Uprising. Gifted with a strong faith and an unexceptional strength of character uncommon for eighteen-year-old, Chmielowski didn’t give up and persistently searched for his way of life by choosing art. He studied painting in Warsaw, Paris and Munich. After completing his studies as a mature and talented painter, Chmielowski started his artistic period, which assured his permanent place in arts.

In the midst of his artistic power, a friend of Wyczólkowski, Gierymski, Witkiewicz, Modrzejewska and many other people from culture and science, he gave up his career and at the age of 42 put his energy into „ the most important” – helping homeless people. He established shelters and various workshops for the homeless.

Adam Chmielowski settled with the poor by sharing the same conditions as a poor among the poor. Through the apostolic way of presence, he lifted a man from a moral degradation and depravation, helping to restore human dignity and essence. Being with the homeless he gave himself to them, understanding that helping the poor truly requires becoming as poor as them and as good as bread. He used to say: “to hold up a table with no leg you can’t overload it, you need to bend down and support it from the bottom. The same applies to the human misery.” His humanism was concrete, real and contagious. Many heroic followers were becoming a part of his work at their own initiative as Brother Albert was a man of great heart.

Brat Albert
Brat Albert
Adam Chmielowski joined an order becoming Brother Albert and giving a rise of two congregations known as the Congregation of the Albertine Brothers and the Albertine Sisters Serving the Poor (Albertins and Albertines). Brother Albert based his methods on the primal Franciscanism, such as practicing contented and evangelical poverty. Till the end of his life he was devoted to the work of mercy for the poorest. After thirty years of service with a reputation of sanctity, Br. Albert died as is believed, on Christmas Day in 1916. His funeral was a testimony of love and acclamation. All citizens of Krakow were saying farewell to “the greatest man of the generation.” Members of the clergy, city government, and the artistic circle walked in a procession side by side with the multitude of the poor. Albert was named second St Francis of Assisi, since he applied to his life the entire Gospel in a simple and a literal manner. At the same time, he remained an artist upholding the beauty for the maltreated humanity.

 

 

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”King of Heaven,
crowned with thorns,
scourged, dressed in a scarlet robe,
O King insulted and slandered,
be our King and Lord here and forever.
Amen.”


“I look at Jesus in His Eucharist.
Has his love devised anything more beautiful?
Since he is bread we shall also be bread.
He is stingy who is not as Him.”

 

“You should be as good as bread,
You should be like bread,
which lies on the table for everyone,
the bread from which everyone can cut a bite and feed himself.”


“He is good who wants to be good.”
.

“A human who for some reasons is without clothes, without home and a piece of bread can only steal or beg to survive, because more often in such poor condition he is not capable of working and finding a job becomes not an easy task.
Therefore, without any special facilities in a city for rescuing such people, the only thing is to use police action, courts, prisons or hospitals.
Such practices are false and negative in their effects.”

 “Every poor man that comes to the door,
 needs to be received and given what can be given,
even it means to live in little poverty or taking away some food from others.

"An example should be so similar to the surrounding conditions, so humble, so miserable, so it doesn’t hurt with its style, is not noticeable and it doesn’t humiliate.”

 

 
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