Tuesday April 11:
Tuesday in Lent and
Optional Feast of Saint Stanislaus, Bishop and Martyr

Purple vestments

First Reading: Numbers 21: 4-9
Responsorial: Psalm 102: 2-3, 16-21
Gospel Reading: John 8: 21-30

      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.

Wednesday April 12:
Wednesday in Lent


Purple vestments

First Reading: Daniel 3: 14-20, 91-92, 95
Responsorial: Daniel 3: 52-56
Gospel Reading: John 8: 31-42

          

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