Jan Kowalski, later known as Maria Michał Kowalski ( ), was a Polish Roman Catholic diocesan priest who became a schismatic religious leader and controversial innovator. Following excommunication from his church, he was consecrated as a bishop in the Old Catholic Archdiocese of Utrecht, established the Old Catholic Church of the Mariavites in Poland, rose to be its archbishop and died a martyr. He is venerated as a saint in the Catholic Mariavite Church.
Early life
He came from a wealthy farming family in Latowicz, one of twins and son of Jan and Katarzyna née Sitek. His twin sister died in infancy. After basic schooling, he studied at the diocesan seminary in Warsaw. He was ordained a Roman Catholic priest on 24 April 1897, by the Auxiliary Bishop of Mogilev, Franciszek Albin Symon. Kowalski served in parishes in Łódź, Niesułków and Stara Sobótka. In 1900, he became a curate at the Capuchin Church in Warsaw.
Religious radical
In 1900 after a former seminary colleague had introduced him to the "Mariavite" movement, he met with the superior of the covert Order of Mariavite Priests, Kazimierz Przyjemski. In September of that year he entered the novitiate of the order and took his first vows to follow the rule of the Minor Friars. He took the religious name, Maria Michał. At Christmas 1901 he met the foundress Feliksa Kozłowska and was deeply impressed by her spirituality and ambitions for the Polish clergy. Despite his modest social background, his forceful personality enabled him to overtake the influence of other well educated and high-born clerics in her circle. He soon became her closest collaborator and confidante. Early in 1903 he was elected provincial of the Płock group of Mariavite priests. On 6 August, while a Mariavite delegation was applying for ecclesiastical recognition in the Vatican, Kowalski still only 32, was elected general of the order and became representative of the Association of Mariavites of Perpetual Adoration and Beseeching. Between 1904 and 1906 he headed delegations to the Holy See and to the Synod of Polish bishops in the territory of Congress Poland, lobbying for recognition of the Mariavite message contained in the "private revelations" vouchsafed to Feliksa Kozłowska and for approval of the Mariavite association.
Kowalski as envoy
The newly established movement had been intended to generate internal reform of the church in Poland. Until 1903 it had not been recognised by the Roman Catholic hierarchy in divided and occupied Poland. That year, the provincials of the Mariavite order presented the texts of Kozłowska's visionary revelations and a history of the movement to the Bishop of Płock, and to the archbishops of Warsaw and of Lublin in the hope of gaining ecclesiastical approval. While the archbishops of Warsaw and Lublin refused to consider the cause, bishop Szembek did take up a formal examination of the cause and initiated a Canonical Inquisition. The leaders of the movement were interviewed and their documents sent to the Holy See. Their cause was delayed in Rome by a conclave to elect the next pope.
Kowalski was considered the most capable person in the movement. He eventually led their presentation to the newly elected Pope Pius X. In September 1904, one month after the second Mariavite audience, a final decision was made by the Congregation of the Inquisition. In December 1904, the Holy See ruled against the Mariavites. It declared the revelations of Kozłowska to be "hallucinations". The Holy See forbade Kowalski any further activities on behalf of the association he headed and ordered its immediate dissolution. It also forbade any further contact between the priests and Kozłowska. Following the ruling, the Mariavite community sent two further delegations to the Holy See, but to no avail.
Kozłowska accepted the decision of the Holy See and for a time cut herself off from contact with the other nuns and priests of the community. The Mariavite priests, however, led by Kowalski, gradually decided to disregard the orders of the Holy See. In February 1906 the priests' group informed the Holy See that it was separating from the jurisdiction of the Polish bishops, but it asked its cause to be adjudicated by Rome. The bishop of Płock described the Mariavites as heretics and a wave of anti-Mariavite persecution followed by clergy suspensions.