RESURRECTIONISTS. - A religious congregation
founded in 1836 in Paris by Bogdan Janski, Peter
Semenenko, and Jerome Kajsiewicz, who at the time
were engaged in religious and social activity among Polish
emigrants.
Initially, influenced by their environment, all three had
almost lost their faith; Janski was even among the
leading members of the philosophical-social school of the
Saint-Simonians. Dissatisfied in his search for the «truth»,
he abandoned the sect and, at the urging of the poet
Adam Mickiewicz, founded with the other two a new religious
society with the purpose of supporting the wavering faith
of the emigrants and, through them, reforming the entire
nation. Janski, an indefatigable lay apostle, died prematurely
in Rome in 1840; Semenenko and Kajsiewicz, however,
completed their theological studies in Rome and, having been
ordained priests, developed Janski’s work by taking their
first religious vows in the catacombs of St. Sebastian on
Easter Sunday 1842, whence the name R.
Fr. Semenenko, theologian, philosopher, orator, and writer,
defined the spirit and purpose of the Congregation in
Christianizing the emerging radical socialism through a
living organization of parish life and the education of youth,
instilling the necessity of recognizing the Christian postulates
of social justice. The Congregation carried out this work
especially among emigrants in the United States and Canada,
organizing a flourishing Catholic life. The Congregation was
also responsible for the foundation of the Polish Pontifical
College in Rome.
Pius IX, in 1860, granted the decree of praise and entrusted
to the R. the missions in Bulgaria: the Congregation thus
also admitted members of the Eastern rite. On March 10,
1888, the Congregation was approved, and in 1902 its
constitutions were approved. Today the R. work in various
countries of Europe and America and number 49 houses
with 586 religious.