After the split of the Christian Church in 1054, Orthodoxy and Catholicism canonized the saints independently of each other. It is not surprising that the Orthodox Church does not have a single saint with the name Stanislav, but the Catholic Church has two at once. The first is a young Jesuit monk Stanislav Kostka. The second is Bishop and Martyr Stanislav Shchepanovsky …
Very little is known about the life of the latter. According to some sources, he was an outstanding preacher of his time, who supported the efforts of Pope Gregory VII to reform the Ecumenical Church. Perhaps it was because of these beliefs that Stanislav was martyred in 1079 - right during the Holy Mass.
The noble who gave himself to God
Researchers call 1030 the approximate date of birth of the future bishop of the Catholic Church. It happened in the south of modern Poland in the town of Schepanov (hence the name Schepanovsky). Stanislav was the first child in a famous noble family, the head of which saw his son as a clergyman from the very beginning. The young man received his primary education near Krakow, after which he went on to further study in Belgium and France.
Upon his return to his homeland in 1060, Stanislav was ordained and began serving in the Krakow Cathedral (aka the Wawel Cathedral of Saints Stanislav and Wenceslas). Ten years later, the local bishop died, and a young priest, with the approval of Pope Alexander II and the king, soon took his place. In modern times, this has been a rather rapid growth in the church hierarchy.
The newly made bishop gained fame in the district long before his death. Firstly, he did not forget about his homeland Shchepanov and built a wooden church of St. Mary Magdalene there. In addition, Stanislav took care of the expansion of the diocese. So, it included some territories on the right bank of the Vistula River, including a small village, Piotravin. Its former owner, by the name of Petrovin, before his death, drew up a bill of sale for the sale of the village - thus, the deal with the diocese was legal. But this fact was questioned by the heirs of Petrovin, who accused the church and personally Bishop Stanislav of "illegal occupation" of the village, and called the letter a forgery. The trial began. The life of the holy bishop indicates a very original way out of the situation that Shchepanovsky found,- he resurrected (literal quote from the text) Petrovin who died three years ago and brought him to court, where he confirmed the legality of the land sale. Nobody disputed the right of the diocese to Petravin anymore.
Promotional video:
Deadly confrontation
The story of the resurrection of a nobleman caused a wide resonance. Bishop Stanislav would certainly have become famous for an even greater number of miracles if, after a few years, he had not taken a principled position in the dispute with King Boleslav the Bold, for which he paid with his life.
It is still not clear what caused the bloody clash between the Polish monarch and the bishop of Krakow. It is known that Stanislav excommunicated the king. But why?
In "Chronicle and deeds of princes or rulers of Poland" Gallus Anonymous says the following: "About how King Boleslav was expelled from Poland, it takes too long to write. But one thing can be said: the anointed one should not take revenge on any carnal sin. Thus, he inflicted very great harm on himself, multiplying sin and commanding the bishop to cut off the members for rebellion. We do not whitewash a rebellious bishop, nor do we praise a king who is so cruelly revengeful."
Indeed, after the assassination of Stanislav, magnates rebelled against the monarch throughout Poland, and Pope Gregory VII imposed an interdict on the country. Boleslav was forced to leave the throne, dying two years later in exile. But why is Bishop Shchepanovsky called a rebel? And why did the monarch take revenge?
The answer to the first question is quite simple: in those days, bishops before ascending to their pulpit took an oath of loyalty to the king. This, on the one hand, excluded contradictions between the state and the church, and on the other, in fact, legitimized the rule of the monarch, the anointed of God. The excommunication of Boleslav from the church, committed by Stanislav, actually deprived him of power, and therefore could well be regarded as a riot and high treason. Shchepanovsky hardly did not understand this. If so, why did he decide to renounce?
Polish historians distinguish two versions. According to one of them, Boleslav committed an act of rape of a young noblewoman. Church hierarchs, including the Primate of Poland, who took an oath of loyalty to him, pretended that nothing had happened. Only the Krakow bishop Stanislav decisively condemned this sinful act and called the king to repentance. The arrogant Boleslav rejected this offer, and Shchepanovsky was forced to excommunicate the monarch from the church, which angered the latter.
Another version is considered more plausible. Boleslav the Brave was known for constantly interfering in the affairs of neighboring states, and therefore was constantly on military campaigns. The absence of a king emancipated the nobles - Poland literally drowned in plunder and debauchery. It got to the point that many military leaders from noble families voluntarily left the fronts and returned home. Some - to protect their relatives from arbitrariness, others - to join him. When the news of this reached Boleslav, he became terribly angry and, upon his return, perpetrated mass reprisals against the vassals who had betrayed him. Struck by the scale of the repressions, Bishop Stanislav more than once offered the monarch to stop the bloodshed and solve the problems of the state peacefully, but the enraged king did not listen to him. Then Shchepanovsky decidedthat a Christian cannot commit such atrocities with impunity, and made the decision to excommunicate.
Of course, the bishop understood that this would entail grave consequences, so he decided to leave the Cathedral of Krakow. His last refuge was the Church of St. Michael the Archangel on Skalka. But this did not save him from royal wrath, and on April 11, 1079 (according to the canonization bull), a squad led by Boleslav broke into the church in which the divine service was taking place. The king personally hit Stanislav several times on the head with a sword and cut the bishop's body into several pieces.
The life of the saint already mentioned above indicates another miracle that happened during this crime: unexpectedly, the body of the murdered man grew together, and eagles flew into the church, which began to drive everyone away from the corpse until the bishop was buried with honor. However, this fact, as well as the resurrection of the nobleman Petrovin by Stanislav, is disputed by many. But there is no doubt that the saint was about 40 years old at the time of his death and that the cause of death, judging by the cracks in his skull, was precisely the blows to the head - this was confirmed by the exhumation of Shchepanovsky's relics, carried out in 1963.
Memory of Stanislav
The rumor about the martyrdom of the Krakow bishop quickly spread throughout the country. An initiative to canonize Stanislav appeared immediately. But by that time, Poland had turned from a single principality into several independent appanages, and there could be no talk of a solidary petition to the Vatican. Only almost two centuries later, in 1253, Pope Innocent IV canonized Bishop Stanislav. This event played an important role in the subsequent unification of the Polish lands. St. Stanislaus, buried in the Wawel Cathedral in Krakow (hence the second "surname" - Krakowski), became a symbol of courage for the Poles. In Poland, and then in the Russian Empire, there was the Order of St. Stanislav.
It is known that Jerzy Popieluszko, who also opposed the communist authorities of Poland in the 80s of the XX century, was inspired by his feat.
Moreover, the name Stanislav, during his enthronement in 1978, wanted to take the Polish cardinal Karol Jozef Wojtyla, who also began his ascension to the papal throne from the position of the bishop of Krakow. But earlier this name was not used by any of the pontiffs, and the 264th Vicar of Christ went down in history as John Paul II.
If then he insisted on his own, then in 2014 the Catholic Church would have found the third Saint Stanislav. And this is a very interesting fact - after all, God, as you know, loves trinity.
Stanislav OSTROVSKY