Once he completed his high school studies in Przemyśl in 1864 he enrolled in law in Lviv at the college. But he decided to cease his legal studies in 1865 and he decided to commence ecclesial studies for he felt a strong call to the priesthood; he began his studies for the priesthood in 1866 at the Latin Catholic Institute. His poor health (tuberculosis) became a hindrance to his studies and he had to undergo a prolonged period of intensive medical treatment from 1869 to 1871. But this did not impede his path to the priesthood for he was ordained as such on 21 July 1871 in the Lviv Cathedral. He celebrated his first Mass on 30 July in the church of the Benedictine Sisters at Przemyśl. Until 1877 he served as the parish vicar and the administrator at Wojniłów and Bukaczowce and then later at Gródek Jagielloński and Zydaczow. During a cholera outbreak in Wojniłów he tended to the sick and he also laid out the bodies of the dead despite the great risk of contagion.