Blessed AUGUSTUS CZARTORYSKI (1858-1893)

The rich young man who says yes

The vocation of a Prince who becomes a Salesian

The birth of Augustus Czartoryski in Paris on 2 August 1858, the first born of the noble and illustrious Polish family, was greeted as a sign of hope: he was predestined to ascend the throne of Saint Casimir and therefore the focal point for all those dreaming of the rebirth of Poland. But God had other designs. This young man, his health undermined from his youth by tuberculosis, accompanied by constant travelling in search of health undertook a much more valuable search - that for his vocation. It did not take him long to realise that he was not made for life at court: “I must confess to you that I am tired of all that. These idle amusements distress me,” he wrote to his father. His tutor Joseph Kalinowski, now a Carmelite saint exercised considerable influence on the young Prince, and guided Augustus in his vocational search suggesting to him the figures of Saint Aloysius Gonzaga, whose life “opened the way for him to an easier union with God,” and that of his fellow countryman Saint Stanislaus Kostka, whose motto Augustus made his own: “Ad maiora natus sum”.

The decisive event in his search and in his life was his meeting with Don Bosco, which occurred in Paris in May 1883: “I have wanted to make your acquaintance for a long time!” Don Bosco said to Augustus. From that day Augustus saw in the holy educator the father of his soul and the arbiter of his future. After his meeting with Don Bosco not only did Augustus feel strengthened in his vocation to the religious life but he was fully convinced that he was called to become a Salesian: “If that is what God wants everything will trun out well, He will make all the obstacles disappear. And if God does not want it, neither do I.” Nevertheless on account of his social position and his state of health, Don Bosco showed a very cautious and reserved attitude with regard to accepting the Prince into the Congregation. It was the Pope in person, Leo XIII, who removed all doubts: “Tell Don Bosco that the Pope desires that he accept you among the Salesians.” “"Well, dear son,” Don Bosco immediately replied, “I do indeed accept you. From this moment you are a member of our Salesian Society and will belong to it until the day you die."

At the end of June 1887, after having renounced his position in favour of his brothers, he set out on his novitiate, with a complete change to many of the things he had been used to: the timetable, the food, the common life... He also had to contend with attempts by the family who were not resigned to the choice he had made. His father went to see him to try to dissuade him. But Augustus was not to be put off. On 24 November 1887 he was clothed in the Basilica of Mary Help of Christians at the hands of Don Bosco. “Courage, my prince,” – the saint whispered in his ear, - “ today we have won a magnificent victory. But I can also tell you with great joy that the day will come when you will be a priest and by God’s will you will bring many blessings on your country.”

The progress of the illness led the family to renew their efforts with greater insistence and to have recourse to the doctors. To Cardinal Parocchi, begged to use his influence to take him away from the Salesian life, he wrote: “In total freedom I wanted to take the vows, and I did so with great joy in my heart. Since that day living in the Congregation I enjoy great peace of mind and I thank the Lord for having made me know the Salesian Society and for having called me to live in it.”

The priestly life of Fr Augustus lasted scarcely a year, which he spent in Alassio, in a room overlooking the boys’ playground. This is how Cardinal Cagliero sums up this final short phase of his life: “He was no longer of this world! His union with God, his perfect conformity to the Divine will in his serious illness, the desire to imitate Jesus Christ in his sufferings and in his afflictions made him heroic in his patience, peace of mind and unswerving, more than in his pain, in the love of God.” He died at Alassio on the evening of Saturday 8 April 1893, during the Easter Octave sitting in the armchair which Don Bosco had used. “What a beautiful Easter!” he had said in Monday to the confrere looking after him, without imagining that the last day of the octave he would celebrate in heaven."

‘How lovely is your dwelling place, Lord God of hosts! My soul is longing and yearning for the courts of the Lord. … One day within your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere’ (Psalm 84/83/, 2.11). These words from the psalm Blessed Augustus Czartoryski had written as his motto on the holy picture for his first Mass. In them is contained the rapture of a man who, following the voice of his call, discovers the beauty of the priestly ministry. In them can be heard the echo of the different choices which have to be made by anyone who seeks the will of God and wants to put it into practice. Augustus Czartoryski, the young prince, had drawn up an effective method of discerning the designs of God. In prayer he placed before God all his questions and basic problems and then in a spirit of obedience followed the advice of his spiritual guides. In this way he understood his vocation of undertaking a poor life in order to serve the smallest ones. This same method enabled him throughout his life to make those decisions through which nowadays we could say he carried out the designs of Divine Providence in an heroic manner.