Honorat Koźmiński was born on 16 October 1829 in Biała Podlaska, the second son of Stefan Koźmiński and Aleksandra née Kahl. He was christened Florentyn Wacław Jan Stefan. He suffered a religious crisis at age eleven and it did not reignite within him until 15 August 1846 during his later imprisonment. He attended school in Płock and from 1844 studied architecture in Warsaw at the Fine Arts School. His father died in 1845. On 23 April 1846 Russian troops arrested him and accused him of being a member of a secret patriotic organisation. It was while imprisoned in the Warsaw Citadel that his religious vocation matured. He contracted typhus while incarcerated which forced his release from prison on 27 February 1847. On 21 December 1848 he entered the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin at their Lubartów monastery and started his novitiate. He made his first profession of vows on 21 December 1849 before going on a philosophical course in Lublin in 1849. He made his solemn profession of vows on 18 December 1850 and was then sent in 1851 to Warsaw on a theological course until 1852. Koźmiński was ordained priest by archbishop Antoni Fijalkowski in Warsaw on 27 December 1852. His first job after ordination was as a lecturer in Warsaw from 1853 to 1855 before helping to found the Felician Sisters. Even in the hostile climate created by the Russian occupants against the Latin Church Koźmiński carried out his apostolate in secret. He was moved to two different cities after the Russians decreed the abolition of religious orders in 1863. He mentored numerous clandestine religious communities. From 1892 he was stationed in Nowe Miasto nad Pilicą where he became a popular and sought-after confessor and spiritual director. He became a vocal advocate for the Third Order of Saint Francis. In 1905 he suffered ill health that prompted him to step back temporarily from his apostolate. Koźmiński died on 16 December 1916 after a painful illness. His collected writings include 42 volumes of sermons and 21 volumes of letters.
Religious orders
Kozminski founded or co-founded a total of sixteen different religious congregations. Those orders are:
Sisters Servants of the Mother of the Good Shepherd
Other orders that he either founded or co-founded were later disbanded:
Servants of the Paralytics
Adorers for Supplication
Evangelical Ladies
Housekeepers of the Holy Family
Daughters of the Mother of God
Marian Society of Priests
Congregation of Saint Martha
Valetudinarian Sisters
Beatification
The beatification cause for the late friar was conducted in the Warsaw archdiocese from 7 April 1949 until 12 January 1951 at which point the investigation turned to his writings. His writings received theological approval on 5 April 1974 before the formal introduction to his cause came on 7 February 1983. The Congregation for the Causes of Saints validated the informative process on 1 February 1985 before receiving the Positio dossier from the postulation in 1986; that September theologians approved the dossier. The C.C.S. members approved the cause also on 3 February 1987. One month later on 16 March he was named as Venerable after Pope John Paul II confirmed his heroic virtue. The miracle leading to his beatification was investigated in Poland in an investigation that moved to Rome; the C.C.S. validated this process twice on 1 February 1985 and on 30 April 1987 before a medical board approved the miraculous nature of the healing on 14 October 1987. Theologians also confirmed this miracle on 4 March 1988 as did the C.C.S. two months later on 17 May. John Paul II confirmed this miracle on 1 September and beatified Koźmínski on 16 October in Saint Peter's Square. The current postulator for this cause is the Capuchin friar Carlo Calloni.
