Adam (religious name Albert) Chmielowski was born on August 20, 1845 at Igołomia near Kraków to the noble Chmielowski family. As a young man, Adam participated in the January Uprising (1863–1864, the Polish revolt against Russian imperial rule) — losing his left leg from a grape-shot wound. Adam survived and undertook the artistic career, becoming a leading Polish Symbolist painter of the 1870s and 1880s.
In 1880, Adam underwent the systematic mystical-religious conversion — producing his famous painting 'Ecce Homo' (1881, the Polish Symbolist masterpiece).
In 1888, Adam undertook the Franciscan Third Order vows and took the religious name Brother Albert — the 'Brother of the Homeless' vocation. Brother Albert personally identified with the Kraków homeless: sleeping among them in the unheated Kraków homeless shelters, sharing their meager food, and personally caring for the Kraków destitute.
In 1891, Brother Albert founded the Albertine Brothers — the Franciscan-Tertiary congregation dedicated to the systematic Kraków poor-relief. In 1898, Brother Albert founded the Albertine Sisters — the women's parallel congregation.
Brother Albert became famous as the 'Brother of the Homeless' (Brat Naszego Boga) of Kraków. He died at Kraków on December 25, 1916 at the age of 71.
Canonized November 12, 1989 by Pope St. John Paul II — the papal recognition of Brother Albert as St. John Paul II's personal spiritual model. St. John Paul II composed the play 'Our Brother God' (Brat Naszego Boga) about Brother Albert in 1949 during his Kraków underground theater period.