Saint Stanislaus of Cracow (
†1079; Feast – May 7)
Some of those we call “Champions of
Catholic Orthodoxy” are so more out of their staunch defense of Catholic morality
than the Catholic Faith. One such is Saint Stanislaus of Cracow. Stanislaus was born in
answer to prayer when his parents were advanced in age. Out of gratitude they educated him
for the Church, and from a holy priest he became in time Bishop of Cracow. Boleslaus II
was then King of Poland – a prince of good disposition, but spoiled by a long course
of victory and success. After many acts of lust and cruelty, he outraged the whole kingdom
by carrying off the wife of one of his nobles. Against this public scandal the chaste and
gentle Bishop alone raised his voice. Having commended the matter to God, he went down to
the palace and openly rebuked the king for his crime against God and his subjects, and
threatened to excommunicate him if he persisted in his sin. To slander the Saint’s
character, Boleslaus suborned the nephews of one Paul, lately dead, to swear that their
uncle had never been paid for land bought by the Bishop for the Church. The Saint stood
fearlessly before the king’s tribunal, though all his witnesses forsook him, and
guaranteed to bring the dead man to witness for him within three days. On the third day,
after many prayers and tears, he raised Paul to life, and led him in his burial clothes
before the king.
Boleslaus made a show for a while of a better life. Soon, however, he relapsed into the most scandalous excesses, and the Bishop, finding all remonstrance useless, pronounced the sentence of excommunication. In defiance of the censure, on May 8, 1079, the king went down to a chapel where the Bishop himself was offering Mass, and sent in three companies of soldiers to dispatch him at the altar. Each in turn came out, saying they had been frightened by a light from Heaven. Then the king slew the Saint at the altar with his own hand. Boleslaus was deposed and fled to Hungary, where he entered a monastery as a penitent. Saint Stanislaus was named the Patron Saint of Poland. Out of deference to Saint Michael, the feast of Saint Stanislaus is kept on the day prior to his martyrdom – May 7.