Stefan Pawlicki

He began his education in Danzig (Gdańsk); after his family moved to Greater Poland, he continued it in Pleschen (Pleszew).

He continued his education in 1853–58 at a liceum in Ostrów Wielkopolski, where he was one of the best pupils, thanks to a scholarship from Jan Kanty Działyński of Kórnik.

In 1865 he defended a doctoral thesis, De Schopenhaueri doctrina et philosophandi ratione—a then pioneering study of the thought of Arthur Schopenhauer.

[1] In Warsaw, influenced by the founder and superior general of the Congregation of the Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ, Father Piotr Semenenko, he underwent a spiritual transformation.

[1] In 1869 Pawlicki began studying Christian philosophy and theology at the Jesuit Collegium Romanum.

He remained in Rome and was called by Pope Pius IX to lecture at the Accademia di Religione Cattolica.

Pope Leo XIII heralded his arrival with the Latin words: "Magnum lumen vobis mitto" ("I send you a great light").

Under his thirty-plus-year tenure, Kraków philosophy became mainly a historical discipline, out of touch with what was happening in the West or even in Warsaw.