St Stanislaus

St Stanislaus, bishop, martyr and patron of Poland

Today the Church commemorates the feast of St. Stanislaus, bishop and martyr, who died while offering Mass. His murderer was the king of Poland, whom he had excommunicated for abducting the wife of a nobleman, and was but the latest act in a life of much cruelty and infidelity. Dr. Pius Parsch writing on today's feast notes how St. Stanislaus offered his life in union with that of Christ and united his sacrifice to that of Christ on the altar. While we may not experience martyrdom, we too can offer our lives with the sacrifice of the Mass and unite our lives to Christ through the sacrament of Holy Communion.

As with many of the feasts occurring during Eastertide, there is another allusion to the Resurrection in the life of St. Stanislaus. According to the breviary, the king brought against Stanislaus the false charge of illegally acquiring a property, so Stanislaus sought to prove his innocence by bringing the man from whom he made the purchase. But the man, named Peter, had died three years earlier. Undaunted, Stanislaus spent three days in fasting and prayer before offering Mass. Afterwards he went to the grave of the dead man and commanded him to rise, forthwith the corpse arose from the ground where it lay buried. Accompanied by Peter, Stanislaus went to the royal court where the man testified to the purchase before again falling asleep in the Lord but not before all present acknowledged Stanislaus' innocence.