The history of St. Stanislaw
the bishop, martyr, patron of Poland
The background and the date of birth of St. Stanislaw are not exactly known. Traditionally the date of 26 July 1030 is regarded as the date of his birth, and Szczepanow near Bochnia the town he came from.
In the youth he received deep education, also abroad. In 1060 he took the ordinations, and the Bishop of Cracow Lambert Sula appointed him the canon of the Wawel Cathedral. On the command of the bishop, Stanislaw established the Yearbook of Cracow (the cathedral chronicle). When bishop Lambert died in 1070, Stanislaw was chosen his successor. However, one had to wait for his consecration as much as two years. As the bishop he ordered to keep the Cracow Calendar, and owing to his intercession, pope Gregorius VII appointed the metropolis of Gniezno again.
The years of holding the office by the bishop on Wawel occurred during the reign of Boleslaw Smialy, also known as Szczodry. The bishop's conflict with the king is the stage in the priest's life which bothers historians most.
The conflict with king Boleslaw Smialy
There was a dispute between bishop Stanislaw and king Boleslaw, the reasons of which are not known in detail. Perhaps the bishop stood up for the oppressed and severely punished, and maybe he rebuked the lax customs of the king and the court. Historical sources close to the times of king Boleslaw Smialy do not mention much about this event passing over its causes in silence. Later sources give the message already wrapped in the legend of the great martyr, and thus one cannot treat them as fully credible.
"The Chronicles" by Gall Anonim created in 1112 - 1116 are the oldest source of information on the conflict. The author of "The Chronicles" attributes treachery to the bishop, however, he does not explain what were the causes of the conflict. One can learn of these notes only that the bishop was sentenced by the king to death by cutting the limbs.
On the contrary, ca. 130 years later Wincenty Kadlubek (the bishop of Cracow in 1208 - 1218) in his "Chronicles" presents already a slightly different version of the developments. Showing the historical background of the events, he writes about the numerous military campaigns of king Boleslaw Smialy and his absence in the country. It was supposed to be the reason for robberies, perfidy of wives, breakdown of marriages and general confusion spreading in the country. The knights gradually began to leave the king staying outside the borders of the state, and he began to revenge himself on the knights after coming back to the country. He ordered the perfidious wives to feed the puppies with their own breasts, and give their babies for feeding to the dog's mothers. According to "The Chronicle" by Kadlubek, bishop Stanislaw as the only one had the courage to admonish the king burning with the lust of revenge, and when that did not work the bishop put a curse on him. That implied exclusion of the king from the community of the Church and exemption of the subjects from the obedience to the ruler. Thus the king issued the order of killing the bishop, and according to the Annalist, because of the objection of the subjects, he executed this act himself. It took place, according to the legend, on 11 April 1079, during a mass in St. Michael's church on Skalka. The king reportedly killed bishop Stanislaw with a stroke in the back of the head, and then ordered to chop his body into pieces. Kadlubek also states that the ministers buried the bishop in the church on Skalka. When the information about such a savage murder got around the country, the nation opposed their ruler who had to escape from the country.
Wincenty from Kielcza, who was preparing "The Biography of Stanislaw" in 1250 - 1260, for the purposes of the canonization process, confirmed the version by Wincenty Kadlubek presenting the bishop as a defender of unfaithful wives of the knights fighting on the campaign of Kiev. The bishop reportedly took their side, as the king ordered to punish them, though their husbands forgave them. In consequence, the king ordered to kill the bishop when he was conducting a mass in the church on Skalka. Because the servants refused to execute the order, the king murdered bishop Stanislaw with his own hands.
In the case of messages by Wincenty Kadlubek and Wincenty from Kielcza, another historical fact seems to have a significant effect on their content. Namely, in 1170, in England, archbishop Thomas Becket died from the hands of the king, when saying a mass. That history could have a substantial effect on the legend about St. Stanislaw being formed, because little was known about the native dispute of the king and the bishop, and that caused that the course of events was recreated after the model of English occurrences.
On the other hand, in a paper by professor Tadeusz Wojciechowski of 1904 "The Historical Outlines of the 11th Century", a thesis was put forward that St. Stanislaw was sentenced for treachery of the nation. That statement was based on the Chronicle by Gall Anonim, in which bishop Stanislaw was defined as traditor episcopus. The professor making out the word traditor in the meaning of traitor, pointed to a political conflict as the subject of the dispute between Boleslaw Smialy and Stanislaw. Bishop Stanislaw reportedly represented a political fraction opposing the king, and favouring interests of great feudal lords, German Emperor Heinrich IV and Czech king Vratislav. The conspiracy was unveiled, and Stanislaw was sentenced by the archbishops' court to death by chopping the limbs into pieces.
According to Witold Sawicki, the cause of the conflict was a family dispute on property. The king and the bishop were supposed to come from the same Russian prince's line of Ruryks. The fact of a revolt and exile of Boleslaw Smialy from the country had its source in the mental disease of the king (mentioned by the annalists - master Wincenty and Dlugosz). Since it could be a legal basis for ousting the king from power, which was reportedly planned by people from the king's surroundings, treating it as a revolt, that is traditor. However, that fact does not relate the character of the bishop with rebellious magnates, the proof of which is to be the fact that some magnates accepted exactly the arguments of the king in the dispute. As to the sentencing of the bishop to death, Sawicki admits that the king did it in an illegal manner.
The cult of St. Stanislaw
Ten years after the death of the bishop, his corpse was taken from the church on Skalka to the Cathedral on Wawel. That was made when a brother of Boleslaw Smialy - king Wladyslaw Herman was still alive.
The bishop's murder was perceived by the faithful as a sacrilegious deed, and the penalty for that was supposed to be the subsequent district division of Poland (1138). The legend would say that the country broke down like the chopped limbs of the bishop. Also, according to it, the remains of the bishop united after his death, and they were watched by eagles. Thus the nation awaited a miracle by the intercession of Stanislaw - they wanted the state to unite, just like united the limbs of the bishop.
The traces of cult of St. Stanislaw come from before 1163 - the relief showing the martyrdom of St. Stanislaw in the church in Olbin in Wroclaw. In the iconography he is presented in pontifical robes, and his attributes include a sword, an eagle, the martyr's palm, a crook and the resurgent Peter.
The cult of St. Stanislaw developed in Poland after the middle of the 12th century. One started to make endeavours to ensure his canonization. It was a long process, full of doubts. The resurrection of Peter was given as a miracle connected with the personage of bishop Stanislaw. This was supposed to take place when the king questioned the right of the bishop to the property of the deceased knight. Peter reportedly, after fervent prayers of Stanislaw, rose from the dead and confirmed that he had sold the property to the bishop. Starting from the canonization process of the bishop of Cracow, the permanent practice was introduced of the so-called "devil's attorney", the task of whom was to bring to light all the vagueness and charges against the canonization. Finally, nearly 200 years after the death, on 17 September 1253 Innocent IV canonized Stanislaw in St. Francis' basilica in Assisi. The ceremony of elevation of the relics of Stanislaw and the announcement of his canonization was held on 8 May 1254.
The Wawel Cathedral in Cracow bears St. Stanislaw's name, and the Cracow sanctuary of the bishop is in the Pauline’s church on Skalka. King Stanislaw August Poniatowski established in 1765 the Order of Saint Stanislaw. In 1963 Pope John XXIII announced St. Stanislaw, along with St. Adalbert and Holy Virgin Mary the Queen of Poland, the first-of-rank patron of Poland.
The cult of St. Stanislaw was disturbed at the turn of the 19th and 20th century, when the above mentioned interpretations by Tadeusz Wojciechowski were published, on the conflict of the bishop with the king. Polemics on the treachery and martyrdom of Stanislaw continue up to this day.
In 1963 the studies of the relics of the saint located in the Cathedral on Wawel were conducted. However, there is no absolute confidence with regard to their authenticity. The examined skull of a man has all teeth which proves that it belonged to a man full of life, about 40 years old. In its rear part there are visible traces of 7 strokes of an iron tool - the largest is 45 mm long and 6 mm deep.
The cult of the patron of Poland in the 21st century
Each year, on the first Sunday after May 8th, the traditional procession in memory of St. Stanislaw from Szczepanow takes place. It is one of the oldest processions in Poland, the route of which the faithful covered for the first time as early as in 1252. Nowadays, like in the old times, the procession is attended by representatives of the state government, the clergy and the faithful. The procession commences with a prayer at the coffin of St. Stanislaw in the Wawel Cathedral, where the procession with the relics of the saint sets out from. The faithful pass through the streets: Podzamcze, Stradom, Krakowska and Skaleczna in order to participate in a solemn mass in the church on Skalka. On the way back, one passes through the same streets visiting the church of St. Catherine and of St. Jadwiga the Silesian, and the procession finishes with a prayer in the Cathedral on Wawel.
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Brakuje tu opisu i wyjaśnienia obrazu Jana Matejki, nigdzie tego nie można znaleźć dlaczego jest zabity, i czy postać która go zabija jest postacią króla2009-02-08
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