Blessed Honorat was born on October 16, 1829 in Biala Podlaska (Poland). He was the son of Stefan Kozminski and Aleksandra Kahlowa and at baptism, was given the name of Wenceslaus.
At the age of 11, Wenceslaus began his secondary school education and it was during this time that he lost his faith. He graduated in 1844 and enrolled in the Department of Architecture at the Warsaw School of Fine Arts. In 1845, he lost his father and in April 1846, he was arrested and sent to prison with his friends for conspiring against the Russians, who at the time occupied Poland.
In a prison cell, Wenceslaus experienced a spiritual upheaval. His faith was renewed and in a mysterious way, as he will say, a divine order was introduced into his soul. "The Mother of God," he wrote in his spiritual journal, "having been moved by the prayers of my mother… interceded for me with the Lord; thus it was that He came to me in my prison cell and gently led me to the faith."
After eleven months of imprisonment, Wenceslaus was freed and to the great surprise of those who knew him, in 1848 he entered the Capuchin Order, taking the name Honoratus. After professing vows and finishing his philosophical and theological studies, he was ordained a priest. As a priest, he began an enthusiastic and zealous apostolic activity in Warsaw.
He was an indefatigable confessor and preacher. In his pastoral work he strongly promoted Third Order of St. Francis and the circles of the "Living Rosary."
A real test came to him and those with him on the night of November 27, 1864, when the Capuchin friary in Warsaw was shut down by the persecutors. The friars were given a choice: either freely depart from the Polish territory occupied by Russians or remain there without any prospects of public activity or development. Father Honorat's decision was clear: "It is here that God wishes to have us…therefore it is here that we shall work."
In 1867, Father Honorat offered himself to Christ through the hands of Mary as her "slave," giving himself over to her completely as an instrument for her hands. From that moment forward, the motto of his life was contained in a sentence expressing limitless trust: "Mary, I am completely Yours---Tuus totus."
Between the years 1874-1895, Father Honorat was a "prisoner of the Confessional." In this short time, he founded a mysterious network of apostolic communities covering the lands of the Kingdom of Poland. This great evangelical tree continued to branch out and at the end of the 19th century, twenty-five different religious Congregations started by Father Honorat counted thousands of brothers and sisters.
He died on December 16, 1916. He was one of the most inspired figures in the most difficult times of Poland's history. It is not any surprise therefore that on September 1, 1988, the Holy Father, Pope John Paul II, presided over the ceremony of his beatification. (Source: The Franciscan Sisters of Our Lady of Sorrows)
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