SUNDAY, April 11, 1999
First Reading: Acts 2: 42-47
Psalms: Psalm 118: 2-4, 13-15, 22-24
Second Reading: 1 Peter 1: 3-9
Gospel Reading: John 20: 19-31
The Second Sunday of Easter supersedes the Feast of Saint Stanislaus, Bishop and Martyr who is traditionally commemorated on this day.
SAINT STANISLAUS, BISHOP AND MARTYR
The principal patron saint of Cracow in Poland is Saint Stanislaus who was born near that city in 1030.
Because he had been born of noble parents they could afford to send him to Paris in France where, while
studying there, the fruits of a vocation to the priesthood came to full flower. Returning to Poland he became
a priest and was designated to be a preacher and canon by the bishop of Cracow at that time, Bishop
Lampert Zula. The fame of Stanislaus' sanctity and preaching prowess spread throughout the city and
beyond and he was sought out by many for spiritual direction. In 1072 Bishop Zula died and Stanislaus was
appointed his successor at the age of 42. Though he did not want this office, he humbly accepted it with a
special emphasis on the poor. Stanislaus angered the King of Poland at that time - King Boleslaus II who
had just been victorious over the Russians at Kiev. Though Boleslaus was a great king militarily, his morals
left much to be desired and Stanislaus rebuked him for his way of life, threatening excommunication if the
king did not mend his ways as a role model of the people in the highest office of the land. Rather than
repenting, Boleslaus called for Bishop Stanislaus' head by ordering his assassination. However three times
the soldiers the king had commissioned to do this dastardly deed failed. So incensed was Boleslaus that he
took it upon himself to silence good Stanislaus, bursting into the church where the Bishop was celebrating
the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass on April 11, 1079 and the evil king became the vehicle by which Stanislaus
attained martyrdom in the Church. He was buried in St. Michael's church in Kalka, Poland and canonized two
centuries later by Pope Innocent IV in 1253, when the Holy Father declared him the first Polish saint to be officially recognized as a martyr. To this day Stanislaus is looked upon by the Polish people as the symbol of
Polish nationhood.
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