On this day in 1893, Bd. Augusto Czartoryski died at Alassio. He was 34 years old. He had been a priest of the Salesians of Don Bosco for one year.
"Augusto Czartoryski was born on 2 August 1858 in Paris, France, the firstborn son to Prince Ladislaus of Poland and Princess Maria Amparo, daughter of the Duke and Queen of Spain. The noble Czartoryski Family had been living in exile in France for almost 30 years, in the Lambert Palace."
Is the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%C3%B4tel_Lambert> Hôtel Lambert, on the eastern tip of the Île Saint-Louis, "The World's Most Beautiful Home"?
Augusto Czartoryski preferred another home. "How lovely is your dwelling place, Lord, God of hosts. . . . One day within your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere." Those were words that he chose for his ordination holy card and that John Paul II, the Polish Pope, quoted in his Homily at the beatification of the Polish Prince.
Augusto's mother died of tuberculosis when he was six. He had contracted the disease from her. First with his father, and then with his tutor, Joseph Kalinowski, the future St. Raphael Kalinowski, O.C.D., Augusto traveled, searching for health.
He was not inclined to follow his father's plan for his life. He felt drawn to religious life, and when Don Bosco said Mass at the Hôtel Lambert, Augusto served. He decided to become a Salesian. His father objected, and Don Bosco was reluctant to accept a candidate in poor health. It "took Pope Leo XIII to remove his doubts when he gave Augusto this message: 'Tell Don Bosco that it is the Pope's will that he receives you among the Salesians'."
Augusto Czartoryski entered the Order in 1887, and in 1892 he was ordained. His father refused to attend the ordination, but a month later, "joined by the entire family in Mentone, he reconciled himself with his son's decision and renounced his own dreams of prestige and nobility for Augusto".
Click http://www.czartoryski.org/Auguste2.htm> here to see Bd. Augusto's page on a Czartoryski family web site. Click the links at the bottom, the Photo Gallery, to see pictures of the family members who attended the beatification with Pope John Paul II.
Click here to see images of Bd. Augusto Czartoryski.
