In 1844 he arrived in Paris, where he held the position of the superior of the Polish Mission at the Church of St. Roch; from 1849 in the church of l' Assomption. As the superior of the Mission, he dealt with Makrina Mieczyslavska [pl] (actually a certain Wińczowa from Lithuania, as proved in 1923 by Jan Urban), the alleged abbess of the Basilian nuns from Minsk, whose martyrdom in the Russian Empire was to be used as a tool of anti-Russian propaganda in the West, especially in Rome. In October 1845, he accompanied her to Rome and helped found a Basilian convent in Rome. The person of Mieczyslavska aroused many controversies from the beginning.[4]
As chaplain to Polish artists in exile, in October 1849 he heard the last confession of Frédéric Chopin and gave him the last rites. He was present when the composer breathed his last. He described the musician's final moments in a letter, dated 21 October, to countess Xawera Grocholska.[5][6]
During the Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871), the veteran insurgent applied for the role of chaplain to the fighters in Paris and ministered to injured soldiers, binding their wounds and helped folk of all faiths.[8] He died during a trip to Rome in April 1877. His body was transferred to Paris and buried at the Cimetière des Champeaux de Montmorency in Montmorency, Val-d'Oise, the largest 19th-c. Polish cemetery in France.[9]
References
^Biernat, Andrzej; Ihnatowicz, Ireneusz (2003). Vademecum do badań nad historią XIX i XX wieku (in Polish). Warsaw. p. 482.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)