Chap­ter IX – For Greater Things brings us to a cru­cial turn­ing point in Stanis­laus Kostka’s journey—his deter­mined response to what he believes is a divine call­ing. Fol­low­ing a mirac­u­lous vision and heal­ing attrib­uted to the Vir­gin Mary, Stanis­laus feels com­pelled to join the Soci­ety of Jesus. Con­vinced this is no pass­ing inspi­ra­tion but a com­mand from heav­en, he seeks out Father Doni, a Jesuit priest, to explore the next steps. Though Father Doni lis­tens with sym­pa­thy, he knows that join­ing the Soci­ety involves more than spir­i­tu­al zeal. Stanis­laus needs either his father’s for­mal approval or must reach legal age, require­ments that present for­mi­da­ble bar­ri­ers. With unwa­ver­ing trust in divine prov­i­dence, he approach­es the Jesuit Provin­cial, Father Lau­rence Mag­gi. But Mag­gi, mind­ful of past ten­sions caused by accept­ing under­age novices with­out fam­i­ly con­sent, denies the request. The Provin­cial urges cau­tion and patience—neither of which sat­is­fies Stanislaus’s burn­ing desire to ful­fill what he sees as a sacred mis­sion.

Unwill­ing to aban­don his pur­suit, Stanis­laus turns to some­one who might have more influ­ence: Car­di­nal Com­men­doni, the papal legate in Vien­na. Their ear­li­er meet­ing had left a strong impres­sion, and Stanis­laus hopes the Car­di­nal might now advo­cate on his behalf. When he presents his request, the Car­di­nal is moved by the young man’s sin­cer­i­ty and devo­tion. He agrees to approach Father Mag­gi, hop­ing his sta­tus might help lift the admin­is­tra­tive bar­ri­er. But even the Cardinal’s endorse­ment can­not shift the Provincial’s stance. Father Mag­gi stands firm in his belief that Church rules must be upheld, despite his admi­ra­tion for Stanislaus’s spir­i­tu­al matu­ri­ty. The Car­di­nal, see­ing the Provincial’s resolve, even­tu­al­ly backs away. For Stanis­laus, this sec­ond rejec­tion is painful—but not par­a­lyz­ing. What would have dis­cour­aged most only deep­ens his resolve.

Rather than sur­ren­der to dis­ap­point­ment, Stanis­laus begins to qui­et­ly con­sid­er a new course of action. He knows that stay­ing in Vien­na, under the con­trol of his dom­i­neer­ing fam­i­ly and sur­round­ed by obsta­cles, will lead to spir­i­tu­al stag­na­tion. His inter­nal urgency becomes stronger, dri­ven not by emo­tion but by fear of dis­obe­di­ence to God’s will. He feels he has been cho­sen for some­thing high­er, and that wait­ing too long might mean turn­ing away from grace. The clar­i­ty of his sense of voca­tion strength­ens him. He decides he must leave Vien­na entire­ly to seek a Jesuit com­mu­ni­ty that would receive him—not as a dis­obe­di­ent son, but as a soul ready for con­se­cra­tion. It is not a deci­sion made in haste, but one ground­ed in prayer and spir­i­tu­al dis­cern­ment.

The courage behind his plan is matched by his humil­i­ty. Stanis­laus does not lash out at those who refused him. Instead, he prays for their under­stand­ing and pre­pares him­self for the dif­fi­cult jour­ney ahead. His depar­ture must be silent and self­less, a sac­ri­fice not only of com­fort but of rep­u­ta­tion and secu­ri­ty. Every step will be uncer­tain, but he trusts that God, who had called him so clear­ly, will make a way. The chal­lenges he faces under­score the depth of his char­ac­ter. He is not sim­ply ide­al­is­tic; he is pro­found­ly dis­ci­plined. His will­ing­ness to endure hard­ship with­out com­plaint and to remain respect­ful even in the face of rejec­tion reveals a matu­ri­ty far beyond his years.

As the chap­ter clos­es, we are left with the image of a young man unwa­ver­ing in the face of insti­tu­tion­al cau­tion and famil­ial pres­sure. Stanislaus’s exam­ple is not one of defi­ance, but of faith­ful per­se­ver­ance. He does not seek con­flict with his father or sym­pa­thy from others—only the free­dom to answer God’s call. His sto­ry in this chap­ter reflects the time­less ten­sion between human author­i­ty and divine prompt­ing. Yet what sets Stanis­laus apart is his refusal to let fear, pride, or delay dis­tract him from his pur­pose. He becomes a mod­el of spir­i­tu­al integri­ty, show­ing that true voca­tion demands not only clar­i­ty but action. Through his unwa­ver­ing com­mit­ment, Stanis­laus reveals that when one hears the call to greater things, the path forward—though difficult—is always worth tak­ing.