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Saint Stanislas (Swiety Stanislaw)
Saint Stanislaw Szczepanowski or Saint Stanislaus of Szczepanów (July 26, 1030 – April 11?, 1079) was a Bishop of Kraków known chiefly for having been martyred by Polish King Boleslaw II the Bold. Stanislaw is venerated in the Roman Catholic Church as Saint Stanislaus the Martyr (as distinct from Saint Stanislaus Kostka).
According to tradition, Stanislaw was born at Szczepanów, a village near the town of Bochnia in southern Poland, the only son of the noble and pious Wielislaw and Bogna. He was educated at a cathedral school in Gniezno (then Poland's capital) and later, according to different sources, in Paris or Ličge. On return to Poland, Stanislaw was ordained a priest by Lambert Sula, Bishop of Kraków.
After the Bishop's death (1072), Stanislaw was elected his successor but accepted the office only at the explicit command of Pope Alexander II. Stanislaw was one of the earliest native Polish bishops. He also became a ducal advisor and had some influence on Polish politics.
Stanislaw's major accomplishments included bringing papal legates to Poland, and re-establishment of a metropolitan see in Gniezno. The latter was a precondition for Duke Boleslaw's coronation as king, which took place in 1076. Stanislaw then encouraged King Boleslaw to establish Benedictine monasteries to aid in the Christianization of Poland.
Stanislaw's initial conflict with King Boleslaw was over a land dispute. The Bishop had purchased for the diocese a piece of land on the banks of the Vistula River near Lublin from a certain Peter (Piotr), but after Piotr's death the land had been claimed by his family. The King ruled for the claimants, but – according to legend – Stanislaw resurrected Piotr so that he could confirm that he had sold the land to the Bishop. According to Augustin Calmet, an 18th-century Bible scholar, Stanislaw asked the King for three days to produce his witness, Piotr. The King and court were said to have laughed at the absurd request, but the King granted Stanislaw the three days. Stanislaw spent them in ceaseless prayer, then, dressed in full bishop's regalia, went with a procession to the cemetery where Piotr had been buried three years earlier. He had Piotr's grave dug up until his remains were discovered. Then, before a multitude of witnesses, Stanislaw bade Piotr rise, and Piotr did so. Piotr was then dressed in a cloak and brought before King Boleslaw to testify on Stanislaw's behalf. The dumbfounded court heard Piotr reprimand his three sons and testify that Stanislaw had indeed paid for the land. Unable to give any other verdict, the King dismissed the suit against the Bishop. Stanislaw asked Piotr whether he would remain alive but Piotr declined, and so was laid to rest once more in his grave and was reburied. A more substantial conflict with King Boleslaw arose after a prolonged war in Ruthenia, when weary warriors deserted home, alarmed at tidings that their overseers were taking over their estates and wives. According to Kadlubek, the King punished the soldiers' faithless wives very cruelly and was criticized for it by Bishop Stanislaw. Jan Dlugosz, however, writes that the Bishop had in fact criticized the King for his own sexual immorality. According to recent historians, Stanislaw took part in a plot of nobles, aimed to gain more powers or dethrone the king. Gallus Anonymus in his laconic account only condemned both "traitor bishop" and violent king. Whatever the actual cause of the conflict between them, the result was that the Bishop excommunicated King Boleslaw. The excommunication aided the King's political opponents, and the King accused Bishop Stanislaw of treason and had him killed. King Boleslaw sent his men to execute Bishop Stanislaw without trial, but that when they dared not touch the Bishop, the King decided to kill the traitor himself. He is said to have slain Stanislaw while he was celebrating Mass in the Skalka outside the walls of Kraków. According to Pawel Jasienica: Polska Piastów, it was actually in Wawel castle. The Bishop's body was then hacked to pieces and thrown into a pool outside the church. According to the legend, his members miraculously reintegrated while the pool was guarded by four eagles. The exact date of Stanislaw's death is uncertain. According to different sources, it was either April 11 or May 8, 1079. The murder stirred outrage through the land and led to the dethronement of King Boleslaw II the Bold, who had to seek refuge in Hungary and was succeeded by his brother, Wladyslaw I Herman. Whether Stanislaw should be regarded a traitor or a hero, remains one of the classic unresolved questions of Polish history. Stanislaw's story has a parallel in the murder, nine decades later, in 1170, of Thomas Becket by henchmen of England's King Henry II. There is little information about Stanislaw's life. The only near-contemporary source was a chronicle of Gallus Anonymus, but the author evaded writing details about a conflict with the king. Later sources are the chronicles of Wincenty Kadlubek, and two hagiographies by Wincenty of Kielce. All contain hagiographic matter. The cult of Saint Stanislaw the martyr began immediately upon his death. In 1245 his relics were translated (i.e. moved) to Kraków's Wawel Cathedral. In the early 13th century, Bishop Iwo Odrowaz initiated preparations for Stanislaw's canonization and ordered Wincenty of Kielce to write the martyr's vita. On September 17, 1253, at Assisi, Stanislaw was canonized by Pope Innocent IV. Pope Pius V did not include the Saint's feast day in the Tridentine Calendar for use throughout the Roman Catholic Church. Subsequently Pope Clement VIII inserted it, setting it for 7 May, but Kraków observes it on May 8, a supposed date of the Saint's death, having done so since May 8, 1254, when it was attended by many Polish bishops and princes. In 1969, the Roman Catholic Church moved the feast to 11 April, considered to be the date of his death in 1079.[1] The tomb of St. Stanislaus today.As the first native Polish saint, Stanislaw is the patron of Poland and Kraków, and of some Polish dioceses. He shares the patronage of Poland with Saint Adalbert of Prague, Florian, and Our Lady the Queen of Poland. Wawel Cathedral, which holds the Saint's relics, became a principal national shrine. Almost all the Polish kings beginning with Wladyslaw I the Elbow-high were crowned while kneeling before Stanislaw's sarcophagus, which stands in the middle of the cathedral. In the 17th century, King Wladyslaw IV Vasa commissioned an ornate silver coffin to hold the Saint's relics. It was destroyed by Swedish troops during The Deluge, but was replaced with a new one ca. 1670. Saint Stanislaw's veneration has had great patriotic importance. In the period of Poland's feudal fragmentation, it was believed that Poland would one day reintegrate as had the members of Saint Stanislaw's body. Half a millennium after Poland had indeed reintegrated, and while yet another dismemberment of the polity was underway in the Partitions of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the framers of the Polish Constitution of May 3, 1791, would dedicate this progressive political document to Saint Stanislaw Szczepanowski, whose feast day fell close to the date of the Constitution's adoption. Each year on May 8, a procession, led by the Bishop of Kraków, goes out from Wawel to the Church on the Rock. The procession, once a local event, was popularized in the 20th century by Polish Primate Stefan Wyszynski and Archbishop of Kraków, Karol Wojtyla. The latter, as Pope John Paul II, called Saint Stanislaw the patron saint of moral order. Roman Catholic churches belonging to Polish communities outside Poland are often dedicated to Saint Stanislaw. In iconography, Saint Stanislaw is usually depicted as a bishop holding a sword, the instrument of his martyrdom, and sometimes with Piotr rising from the dead at his feet. |
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