The Pope John Paul II was recognized as a great master of a propagated word. Each of his homilies radiated faith and living affection, profound essence and considerable oratorical technique. He could fill a homily with a word of a personal profession of faith and testimony, he could give a speech using a creative and dialogical language and in the world becoming more and more secularized he could be a prophet, thus a witness of the Invisible God.

Studiando le vicende della spiritualit polacca si pu notare che fin dallinizio, cio dal momento dellinserimento della Polonia nellEuropa cristiana, erano presenti in essa alcune correnti della spiritualit europea. Un forte influsso sulla nascita e sullo sviluppo della spiritualit polacca avevano gli ordini religiosi. Tra le dimensioni della spiritualit europea coltivate in Polonia una particolare attenzione merita la dimensione cristocentrica e mariana.

Polish authors have made a considerable contribution to the formation and development of the Theology of Spirituality that has become a separate subject of ecclesiastical studies since 1931. In the Middle Ages the eminent Polish theologians were Mateusz of Kraków (+1410) and Jakub of Paradyż (+1464). They visited Germany and Czech where their works gained some recognition. Confessio Fidei Catholicae Christiana (Moguntiae 1557) by Stanisław Hozjusz (+1579) is one of the most important works of the modern times, written in Latin, published 39 times during the authors life. The contents of the work influenced the attitudes of the people of those times. Christocentrically directed spirituality is represented by Stanisław Sokołowski (+1593) and Kasper Drużbicki (+1662). Many important thoughts on spirituality, especially on Catholic mysticism, come from Mikołaj of Mościska (+1632). The very first treatise on Ascetic and Mystic Theology is Summarium Asceticae et Mysticae Theologiae (Cracoviae 1655). Grzegorz Terecki (+1659) also skilfully combined ascetism and mysticism in his Directorium Spiritualis Vitae Fratrum Eremitarum Ordinis Sancti Pauli Eremitae (Cracoviae 1649). The Cistercians played the significant part in the propagation and development of the Theology of Spirituality: Michał Antoni Hacki (+1703) and Feliks Simplex Łącki (+circa 1700) together with Stanisław Papczyński (+1701) and Florian Jaroszerwicz (+1771). Notwithstandingly, the writings of Polish Resurrectionists, especially by Piotr Semenenko, greatly enriched Catholic Spirituality. Many works of importance for the development of the Theology of Spitituality were written in more recent times including 20th century. Józef Sebastian Pelczar (+1924), Aleksander Żychliński (+1945), Józef Puchalik (1958), Antoni Słomkowski (+1982) and Stanisław Witek (+1987) are important authors whose works cast new light on the problems of spiritual life and ensured the deserved position for the Theology of Spirituality among the theological disciplines.

For this reason the present paper is first illustrating the evolution of thought ± from hagiography to hagiology. The question is articulated about the justified legitimacy of the introduction of the notion of "hagiology". The distinctness of the subject of research, which itself often demands application of the new methods, certainly proves the right to introduce the notion of "hagiology" into hitherto existing hagiographical researches. Having this on mind, the next question arises: how far the subjects of hagiology and hagiography converge between themselves? If holiness as a God’s gift has always points towards man, then in some regard the subject of hagiography coincides with that of hagiology. Introducing more precise distinctions, one should say that the exact meaning of "hagiography" would designate the popular biographies of saints, "scientific hagiography" would indicate the biographies of the saints, whose life has been investigated on the basis of formal criteria accepted by Congregation for the Causes of Saints. Hagiology instead would mean the realm of the knowledge, which in scientific way examines the sources and elaborates the main issues concerning holiness. It seems that more important difference can be seen in the methodology of researches themselves than in the subject of hagiography and hagiology.

The popular narration, used often by chroniclers in the biographies of the saints, should be rather replaced by more objective and scientific narration. In order to create the scientific narrations hagiologist should acquire comprehensive knowledge, which covers a large range of scientific subjects: the Bible, Tradition of the Church, hagiography, spiritual theology, liturgy, history of the Church, psychology, etc.

It is why the present paper subsequently shows the relations between hagiology and the above mentioned theological and humanistic subjects. Author is aware that the connection between hagiology and the others scientific disciplines is much wider and calls for more extensive studies. It can be said that the above paper is a small compendium in the examined subject and recognises the need to carry on further studies in this field.

This topic of the research was basically not undertaken yet in the theological literature. St. Faustina offers a definition of sanctity and shows its development till the point of achieving a mystical union. It is mystical sanctity, therefore, which ultimate norm is the unity with Jesus. In this line, Faustina trusts that God’s Mercy will make her holy. In this context we can understand that it was merciful holiness expressed by receiving mercy and rejecting sin. Christ is introducing her in the Mystery of His Passion. Pasha of the sanctity which is achieved by the Christian through the bond with Jesus, causes diving in His death and vocation to life in His resurrection. Therefore, it is a paschal sanctity. According to that, the paschal Mystery makes up the center of the mystical life of St. Faustina. This results that she puts heavy accent on this mystical union with Christ’s suffering, with His death on the Cross. She discovers her calling to sanctity under the influence of Pasha as a call to become a holistic victim offered to God. This work of sanctity we can call the Mystic of the merciful sanctity. And Faustina writes about this too, and not only about the Mercy.

The author of the article presents theology of the word in a new light by putting together three categories which explain one another: the word, the person and the symbol. In order to bring closer together the theological perspectives of the Catholic and Protestant theologies, the former being associated with theology of the sacrament and the latter with theology of the word, the author uses many examples from the Bible to show that the word was equated with the personal act of God or even with the Person of the Word as shown in the New Testament. The word incarnate by its united humanity and divinity performs the function of the symbol in the Revelation which (according to a contemporary definition) is a synthesis of what is visible and spiritual, what is divine and what is human, etc. A surplus of meaning is a characteristic feature of the symbol; consequently, it always opens us to a mystery. This suggestion makes it possible to bring together theology of the sacrament and theology of the word. A real criterion of this connection is the Person of the Pre-Symbol.

The author of this article refers to Husserl’s principle that every science should be justified by the experience appropriate to itself, and also refers to the recognition of as many types of experience as there are types of reality. Thus, the author proves in his article that through the power of Christian Faith, Hope and Love and through the power of the gifts of the Holy Spirit we are capable of meeting God who manifests Himself and redeems us in the Mystery of Christ. The author also points out that this specific visuality of Faith, Hope and Love with the sensations of the actions of the Holy Spirit form the basis of Christian Experience, common and mystical. The Christian Experience defined in such a way should be the source of theological cognition in general and be the source of academic cultivation of principal and formal theology. Theology that has its source in such an experience should also be verifiable by the criterion of such an experience. In this sense, Christian Theology is not a rationalistic and naturalistic inference from the Texts of the Holy Bible and Magisterium Ecclesiae, but is a formal explication and interpretation of the aforementioned Christian Experience. The author also argues that the ecclesiastical characteristics of Christian Experience excludes its individualistic perception and does not diminish the role of Magisterium Ecclesiae in the fact of the experience itself and the cultivation of Theology as the explication and interpretation of experience.