He was born into a family of minor gentry and studied at the Lublin gimnazjum,[2] then the University of Warsaw.
He participated in the Polish January Uprising of 1863, and fled to Dresden in 1864, then to Lucerne and Berne where he continued his studies in mathematics.
In a letter from St. Francis Seminary to Father Semenenko dated 22 January 1870, he expressed concern about demoralized conditions among the Poles in the United States.
Dąbrowski was gifted 20 acres (81,000 m²) of land by an Irishman for the erection of new parish buildings.
In 1874 he introduced the Felician Sisters from Kraków into the United States to open and run a school for Polish immigrants.
Dąbrowski urged the Resurrectionists to come to Chicago or Milwaukee and establish schools of higher education where they might send out missionaries to the scattered Poles.
In 1882 failing health forced him to resign his post in Wisconsin and leave for Detroit, Michigan.
At that time Cardinal Ledóchowski was unable to meet the appeals of American bishops for Polish priests and ecclesiastical students.