Saint Stanislaus of Krakow

Stanislaus of Szczepanów
Saint Stanislaus
Bishop and Martyr
Born	July 26, 1030, Szczepanów, Poland
Died	April 11(?), 1079, Kraków, Poland
Venerated in	Roman Catholic Church
Canonized	September 17, 1253, Assisi, Italy
Major shrine	Wawel Cathedral, Kraków
Feast	April 11 or May 7 (May 8 in Poland)
Attributes	Episcopal insignia, sword, resurrected Piotr
Patronage	Poland, Kraków, moral order

Stanisław Szczepanowski or Stanislaus of Szczepanów (July 26, 1030 – April 11?, 1079) is the patron saint of Poland. In life, he was the Bishop of Kraków, known for opposing the cruelty of Jubf Bolesław II the Bold, who reacted by causing Stanisław's death.

The only nearly contemporary source on Stanisław's life is a chronicle of Gallus Anonymus, who refrained from writing details about the bishop's conflict with the king. Later sources are the chronicles of Wincenty Kadłubek and two (hagiographies) by Wincenty of Kielce, which contain much legendary matter.

In the twentieth century, Stanisław because an important rallying point for Pole's opposed to the tyranny of Communism. Pope John Paul II, called Saint Stanisław the patron saint of moral order. Stanisław is venerated in the Roman Catholic Church as Saint Stanislaus the Martyr (as distinct from Saint Stanislaus Kostka).

Life

According to tradition, Stanisław was born at Szczepanów, a village near the town of Bochnia in southern Poland, the only son of noble and pious parents, Wielisław and Bogna. He was educated at a cathedral school in Gniezno, then Poland's capital. Later, he studied in either Paris or Liège. On return to Poland, Stanisław was ordained a priest by Lambert Suła, Bishop of Kraków.

After the bishop's death (1072), Stanisław was elected his successor, but accepted the office only at the explicit command of Pope Alexander II. Stanisław was one of the earliest native Polish bishops. He also became a ducal adviser and thus had some influence on Polish politics.

Stanisław's major accomplishments included bringing papal legates to Poland and the re-establishment of a metropolitan see in Gniezno. The latter was a precondition for Duke Bolesław's coronation as king, which took place in 1076. Stanisław then encouraged King Bolesław to establish Benedictine monasteries to aid in the Christianization of Poland.

The Resurrection of Piotr

Stanisław's initial conflict with King Bolesław was over a land dispute. As bishop, Stanisław had purchased for his diocese a piece of land on the banks of the Vistula River near Lublin from a certain Piotr, but after Piotr's death the land had been claimed by his family. The king ruled for the claimants, but– according to legend–Stanisław resurrected Piotr so that he could confirm that he had sold the land to the church.

Saint Stanisław leads Piotr before the royal tribunal.

According to Augustin Calmet, an eighteenth-century biblical scholar, Stanisław 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 Stanisław the three days. Stanisław 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, Stanisław bade Piotr rise, and Piotr did so.

Piotr was then dressed in a cloak and brought before King Bolesław to testify on Stanisław's behalf. The dumbfounded court heard Piotr reprimand his three sons and testify that Stanisław had indeed paid for the land. Unable to give any other verdict, the king dismissed the suit against the bishop. Stanisław asked Piotr whether he wished to remain alive but Piotr declined, and so was laid to rest once more in his grave.

A more realistic conflict with King Bolesław arose after a prolonged war in Ruthenia, when weary warriors deserted home, alarmed at tidings that their overseers were taking over their estates and treating warriors' wives as their own. According to Kadłubek, King Bolesław punished the soldiers' faithless wives very cruelly, but was criticized for this by Bishop Stanisław. Jan Długosz, however, writes that the bishop criticized the king's own sexual immorality. Recent historians hold that Stanisław took part in a plot of nobles, aimed to gain more powers or dethrone the king. Gallus Anonymus condemned both "traitor bishop" and violent king.

Whatever the actual cause of the conflict between them, the upshot was that Stanisław excommunicated King Bolesław. The excommunication aided the king's political opponents, and the king accused Stanisław of treason and had him killed.

Martyrdom

File:Rozsiekanie Swietego Stanislawa.jpg

The martyrdom of Saint Stanisław.

King Bolesław reportedly sent his men to execute Stanisław without trial. However, they dared not touch the holy bishop. The king therefore decided to kill the traitor himself. He is said to have slain Stanisław while he was celebrating Mass in the Skałka outside the walls of Kraków. Another accounts indicated the execution took place 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 Stanisław's death is uncertain. According to various sources, it was either April 11 or May 8, 1079.

The murder stirred outrage through the land and led to the dethronement of King Bolesław II the Bold, who had to seek refuge in Hungary and was succeeded by his brother, Władysław I Herman. Whether Stanisław should be regarded a traitor or a hero remains one of the classic unresolved questions of Polish history.

Legacy

The cult of Saint Stanisław the martyr began almost immediately upon his death. In 1088 his relics were moved to Kraków's Wawel Cathedral. In the early thirteenth century, Bishop Iwo Odrowąż initiated preparations for Stanisław's canonization and ordered the writing of the martyr's vita. On September 17, 1253, at Assisi, Stanisław was canonized by Pope Innocent IV.

Saint Stanislaus

Subsequently Pope Clement VIII set the Saint's feast day for May 7 throughout the Roman Catholic Church, though Kraków observes it May 8, the supposed date of the Saint's death. The first feast of Saint Stanisław in Kraków was celebrated May 8, 1254, and was attended by many Polish bishops and princes. As the first native Polish saint, Stanisław 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 Władysław I the Elbow-high were crowned while kneeling before Stanisław's sarcophagus, which stands in the middle of the cathedral. In the seventeenth century, King Władysław 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.

File:Tomb of Stanislaus.jpg

The tomb of St. Stanislaus today.

Saint Stanisław'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 Stanisław'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 Stanisław, 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 twentieth century by Polish Primate Stefan Wyszyński and Archbishop of Kraków, Karol Wojtyła. The latter, as Pope John Paul II, called Saint Stanisław the patron saint of moral order.

Roman Catholic churches belonging to Polish communities outside Poland are often dedicated to Saint Stanisław.

In iconography, Saint Stanisław 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.

See also

• List of Roman Catholic bishops of Kraków
• List of saints
• Gaude mater Polonia
• Order of Saint Stanislaus

Preceded by: Lambert Suła

Bishop of Kraków 1072–1079

Succeeded by: Lambert III

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