Początki Instytutu Miłosierdzia Bożego w świetle pierwszego sprawozdania funkcionowania wspólnoty z 1949 roku

The beginings of the Lay Institute of Divine Mercy date back to the years of the Second World War. It originated from a community of girls, members of the Sodality of Our Lady of the Female Students of the Stefan Batory University in Vilnius, who, despite the prohibition on gatherings, started in 1940. They held their meetings in a private apartment of Rev. Michał Sopoćko (1888-1975), an environment that facilitated hem in their efforts to tend to their internal life and discern their vocation. The article presents the first report on activities of the Institute. The author of this document, Ludmiła Roszko (1913-2000), a geographer and academic in the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, contributed to the work of the Institute from its begining. Since 1945 until her death on the 19th December 2000 she lived in Toruń. Her role and importance in the foundation of the Institute is so significant that she is considered to have been its co-founder, together with Blessed Rev. Michał Sopoćko. The report consists of two parts. In the first, one author describes fundamental facts from the origins of the Institute, i.e. from 1942 to August 1949. Next she provides information of the first months of Institute’s activities from the mid-August 1948 to the spring of 1949. Within this section, apart from reminiscences of important events, there is also a kind of unveiling of the spiritual way which was experienced by the growing community.