to recuperate, where he decided not to return to the Jesuits because that path was not for him. He soon discovered the Rule of Saint Francis of Assisi which inspired him and prompted him to seek them out with the intention of joining their order. It was around this time that his spiritual director was a Lazarist priest. On 25 August 1887 he joined the Third Order of Saint Francis and took their habit, and the religious name, "Albert". He made his first profession at the hands of the Cardinal Archbishop of Kraków Albin Dunajewski. He took up residence in the public shelter where he had been volunteering. In 1888 he took his final religious vows and on 25 August 1888 founded the Servants of the Poor and on 15 January 1891 - alongside Maria Jabłońska - founded a parallel women's congregation known as the Albertine Sisters who organized food and shelter for the homeless and destitute. Chmielowski was to spend a brief period at a Carmelite monastery where he came upon the works of John of the Cross who would be his favourite author. He also came to know the Carmelite superior, Raphael Kalinowski who suggested he might become a Carmelite. Chmielowski, however saw his path as that of a Franciscan. Death He died at noon on 25 December 1916 - on Christmas - due to stomach cancer in the shelter that he had established. He had received the Anointing of the Sick on the 23 December when his condition began to deteriorate. He was buried in the Rakowicki Cemetery. His remains were exhumed on 15 September 1932 and placed in a metal coffin. They were exhumed once again on 31 May 1949 and placed in a Discalced Carmelite church. Legacy On 10 November 1938 he received a posthumous award in the form of the Order of Polonia Restituta. Karol Wojtyła in 1949, then a simple priest in Poland, wrote a well-received play about Albert, entitled which was made into a in 1997. John Paul II later said that he found great spiritual support for his own vocation in the life of the Polish saint whom he saw as an example of leaving behind the world of the arts to make a radical choice in favour of the religious life. Sanctity The canonisation process started in 1966 under Pope Paul VI who later declared him Venerable in 1977 upon