Raphael Kalinowski was born to Polish parents in the city of Vilnius in 1835. Following military service, he was condemned in 1864 to ten years of forced labor in Siberia. In 1877 he became a Carmelite and was ordained a priest in 1882. He contributed greatly to the restoration of the Discalced Carmelites in Poland. His life was distinguished by zeal for Church unity and by his unflagging devotion to his ministry as confessor and spiritual director. He died in Wadowice of tuberculosis in 1907.[2] Fourteen years later, Karol Wojtyła, later known as Pope John Paul II, was born in the same town.

Father Raphael was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1983 in Kraków, in front of a crowd of over two million people. On November 17, 1991, he was canonized when, in St. Peter’s Basilica, Pope John Paul II declared his boyhood hero a Saint.[6] Raphael was the first friar to have been canonized in the Order of the Discalced Carmelites, since co-founder Saint John of the Cross (1542-1591).

Prayer:

Lord God, you made your priest Saint Raphael strong in adversity and filled him with a great love in promoting Church unity. Through his prayers, make us strong in faith and in love for one another, that we too may generously work together for the unity of all believers in Christ. We ask this through our Lord.

Read More at the Vatican website.