Home page
Saint
Stanislaus
Bishop and Martyr
Patron Saint of Poland
d. 7 May 1079
When
Stanislaus was born about the year 1030, Poland was struggling with
change. The first king of Poland, Boleslaus the Great, had been on
the throne for three years. Poland had only been a Christian nation for 65 years.
People still lived who remembered what it was like to live in a pagan
country without a central government.
Stanislaus was
in the middle of these struggles. Because he made powerful enemies among
the rulers, no record of his life was written until two centuries
after his death. We know few facts of his life, but here is what his
people said of him.
He is said to
have been born of a noble family, to have been brought up by his
parents in habits of devotion, and to have been well educated. He was ordained priest and attached to the cathedral at Cracow,
where he soon became famous for his preaching and his own good example.
When the bishop died, Stanislaus was chosen as his successor, both by the
enthusiasm of the people and the decree of Pope Alexander II. He
was most generous to the poor and needy, but he was also courageous and
strict in discipline and the defence of morality, and he came face to
face with the king of Poland, Boleslaus II. In a cruel and wicked career,
the king had finally outraged his people by the abduction of the wife of
one of his noblemen. But the nobles
and court prelates kept silent. Stanislaus, however, upbraided the king to
his face, and threatened him with the censure of the church.
When the king
declared his enmity openly, Stanislaus found himself without friends and
support. When his continued prayers did not bring about the king's
repentance, he excommunicated Boleslaus.
The
king refused to believe this sentence would be carried out, but when he
walked into the cathedral the bishop ordered the Mass to stop. The
king saw Stanislaus, not his own behaviour, as the source of his shame.
So in order to rid himself of his shame, he decided to kill Stanislaus.
On May 7,
1079, the bishop was celebrating Mass at St. Michael's, a small church on
a cliff, when word came the king was marching on the church. Stanislaus had seen the church as a quiet refuge from the
politics and troubles. Boleslaus
had seen it as an ideal spot for murder. When the men with the king
refused to kill the bishop while he was celebrating Mass, the king
pushed them aside, marched into the church, and clubbed Stanislaus to death.
When the pope heard the news, he not only excommunicated Boleslaus and everyone involved but put the whole country of Poland under interdict. This meant that there were no liturgical celebrations, no celebration of the sacraments, except baptism of infants and confession of the dying. In trying to bully his way to power, Boleslaus had destroyed everything he built. Eventually he fled to Hungary where legend has it he repented and became a monk.
Saint
Stanislaus, the Patron Saint of Poland, was canonized 1253. His
feast day is 11 April, except in the city of Cracow, where it is
celebrated with a solemn procession on 7 May.
The
murder of a bishop on the orders of the king parallels the fate of Saint
Thomas à Becket in Canterbury Cathedral about 100 years later.
The king, Henry II, similarly repented of his anger, and Thomas was
canonized in 1173.
Acknowledgements:
Text adapted from
Catholic
Saints
Image from Britannica