Saint Stanislaus Kostka of Poland

From that time on, he thought only of leaving the world and being received into the Company; but his confessor, to whom he finally declared his secret, told him that he would not be received in Vienna, where he was a student, without the consent of his parents; not thinking he could obtain it, he set his sights on another province, where he was assured that he would not face such difficulty. To get there, he had to slip away from his brother, who kept a very strict watch over him and often treated him with great harshness. The matter was not easy, but he found a very favorable opportunity: One day this elder brother, who was of a completely different temperament than he, spoke to him very rudely and even threatened to strike him; Stanislaus told him with his usual gentleness that, if he continued to act in such a way toward him, he would be obliged to inform his father and withdraw. Paul replied angrily that he should go wherever he wished, and that he did not care at all. This was the leave-taking Stanislaus was waiting for: he made no reply; but, having confessed and received communion, he dressed poorly and took the road to Augsburg, to go and ask for the habit from the Reverend Father Canisius, provincial of Upper Germany, having for this purpose letters of recommendation from a Father of the Company, preacher to the Empress.

When his brother no longer saw him, he was extremely distressed, especially since he believed that it was his own mistreatment that had forced him to flee. He searched for him everywhere in Vienna; and not having found him, he got into a carriage with his tutor and a few other people to chase after him on the road to Augsburg. They were not long in catching up to him, because he was on foot; but God permitted them to pass by without recognizing him, and as soon as they were a little further on, their horses backing up instead of moving forward, they were forced to return to Vienna: thus Stanislaus, triumphing over their pursuit, happily continued his journey. The next morning, wishing to receive communion, he entered a village church that he believed to be Catholic; but having discovered that it belonged to the Lutherans, he left as soon as possible, and meanwhile prayed to Our Lord not to deprive him that day of the bread of life for which his heart was starving. His prayer was answered, and an angel descended from heaven at that very hour and placed in his mouth the adorable sacrament of our altars. If the bread baked under the ashes that the prophet Elijah ate, which was only a very imperfect figure of our holy mysteries, gave him the strength to walk forty days and forty nights without tiring, one should not be surprised that Stanislaus, fortified by this divine nourishment, arrived happily in Augsburg. He even traveled another ten leagues with wonderful joy and fervor, because the Reverend Father Canisius, whom he was seeking, was at that time in Dillingen. This venerable superior welcomed him with all sorts of kindness, and recognizing in him something celestial, he immediately gave him entry into the Company. But, so that he would not be exposed to the violence of his parents, he sent him to Rome with two companions to take the habit t here Rome Birthplace of Maximian. . It is a journey of two hundred and sixty leagues, which the woods, rocks, mountains, and waters make extremely arduous and difficult: he nevertheless made it on foot, weak and delicate as he was, overcoming such terrible difficulties through his fervor; and the road itself seemed short to him, because his zeal and love seemed to give him wings to fly. Saint Francis Borgia, then General, received this great treasur e with many acts of than Saint François de Borgia General of the Jesuits in Rome who received Stanislaus. ksgiving toward the divine Goodness, and he was given the habit on the day of Saint Simon and Saint Jude, in the year 1567.

His father, having learned that he was a Jesuit, wrote him letters full of insults and reproaches, as if he had brought shame upon his family by entering such a holy and illustrious Society; he also threatened him, should he ever return to Poland, with mistreatment, imprisonment in a dungeon, and being loaded with chains. The Blessed one replied to him with both modesty and firmness, that he believed he had honored his house by giving it an alliance with the Society of Jesus; that he feared no threat, because it would be a joy for him to suffer something for the service of his God, to whom he had consecrated his entire life.

Who could describe the joy he felt to find himself in Rome, in the novitiate of the Society, one of the most excellent schools of virtue that existed, not only in this capital city of the Christian world, but also in all of Europe? He often shed streams of tears from the great joy with which his heart was flooded; and, so as not to lose the fruit of a grace he esteemed so highly, he applied himself from the start, with invincible courage, to all the exercises that could lead him to perfection. He advanced further on this path during the ten months he lived after entering the Society than others, full of fervor, advance in fifty or sixty years. One saw from then on in him a marvelous harmony of all virtues. Supported by the knowledge of himself, that is to say, of his nothingness, his weaknesses, his incapacity for any good, and his original corruption, he possessed a humility that praise could not alter and that neither rebuffs nor humiliations could weary. He looked upon all his brothers as angels, and he regarded himself only as a great sinner, unworthy to hold rank among them and to be of their number. That is why he always placed himself last, asked as a favor for the worst clothes and the vilest tasks, and wished that all reprimands and penances be for him. Never was he seen to accuse others, nor to excuse himself, nor to avoid confusion, nor to hide a fault that could bring him some blame and some correction: and yet his faults were very rare and only those that a novice cannot entirely avoid. His desire, on the contrary, was that one should think of him only to despise him, and that no creature should ever be occupied with his esteem.

He joined to this humility an uncommon austerity of life: his superiors could not satisfy his desire for mortifications; and, although it was known through the deposition of his confessors, to whom he had made his general confession, that he had preserved all his life the robe of innocence he had received at baptism, he afflicted his body with continuous torments, as if he had been guilty of the most enormous crimes and the most difficult to expiate. The hair shirt was his most ordinary garment, fasting his most delicious meal; he also very often took the discipline until he bled; and, if he did not treat himself even more harshly, it was because his master checked the vehemence of his zeal and did not allow him to overwhelm himself under the weight of a merciless severity. As he had left with such courage the great wealth he could have possessed in the world, he was careful not to attach himself to small possessions, upon which young novices often set their affection. He was perfectly poor, that is to say, detached from all things: God was his only treasure, and, having found in Him the fullness of all goods, he loved only Him and wanted nothing in heaven or on earth but Him. His chastity was entirely angelic, and we could well say that he ignored carnal pleasure rather than conquered it. His very gaze inspired purity in those who saw him, and it was enough to approach his person to conceive a horror of all that is contrary to honesty and capable of tarnishing its luster. He possessed the virtue of obedience in the highest degree, and he was so flexible for all that his superiors desired of him that he even anticipated their commands and the external signs of their will. He respected all those who were charged with any office as if they had been his masters, and he was never seen to resist their orders, nor even to show any reluctance. What shall we say of his modesty, his gentle and obliging temperament, his exactitude in keeping silence except on occasions where he was obliged to speak by necessity or charity, and of his continual recollection and his constancy in never transgressing any point of his Rules?

As for his prayer, we have already said that he practiced this holy exercise as soon as he studied the humanities in Vienna, and he was already so fervent in it that one day it was very difficult to bring him back from a fainting spell that his too long application to our holy mysteries had caused him. Since he became a religious, he became even more incomparably assiduous in it. He employed all the hours of the day in it when obedience did not occupy him elsewhere, and he also took much from his sleep to continue his prayer more quietly, favored by the deep silence in which all creatures are at that time. But why should we not say that his life was a perpetual prayer, since he performed all his actions with such interior peace, and union of spirit and heart with God, that there was no interruption in his prayer? What is admirable and very rare, even in the greatest Saints, is that he had so mastered his imagination that he had no distraction in this exercise; thus, when his confreres complained of the wanderings of mind they suffered in their devotions, he was quite surprised and could hardly understand what they meant. His exterior, during prayer, was so devout that he charmed all those who had the happiness of seeing him, and often the other novices would cast their eyes on him for a moment, not out of curiosity, but because his example helped them to recollect themselves and to become more attentive.

He received from God, in this conversation with Him, extraordinary lights and graces. He had above all the gift of tears, and he sometimes shed torrents of them with an inexplicable sweetness. The gift of wisdom and the knowledge of spiritual things was also granted to him, and he spoke of them, on occasion, in a manner so high and so luminous that one could not sufficiently admire his prudence and his elevation at such an early age. Divine consolations often accompanied these lights, and all these fervors ignited such a great fire of love in his heart that it was necessary to place wet cloths on his chest to temper its ardor. He easily obtained what he asked of God, and one day when a religious, pressed by a violent temptation, begged him to obtain the victory for him, he had no sooner raised his pure and innocent hands toward heaven than this religious was entirely delivered. It would take the pen of an angel to treat worthily of his tenderness and his filial affection toward the Blessed Virgin. Mary was his Lady, his Mistress, and his very good Mother; he spoke to her day and night, and it seemed that he had no other concern than to please her and to do something that would be agreeable to her; if he meditated in the secret of his oratory, he did not fail to occupy himself with her greatness and to converse lovingly with her; if he spoke to his confreres, all his pleasure was to explain her excellences to them, and to hold pious conferences on the manner of honoring and serving her. In a word, Mary was always in his mind, in his heart, and on his tongue, and one could not give him more contentment than to show love and respect for this august Queen of angels and men. It was thanks to him that the master of novices ordered all his disciples not to fail every morning, as soon as they were up, to kneel, turned toward the church of Saint Mary Major, to ask the Blessed Virgin for her blessing, and to do so again in the evening, after the examination of conscience: the custom has been preserved in this novitiate.

Finally, under the impression of this love for the Mother of God, our holy nov notre saint novice Young Polish nobleman who became a Jesuit novice, died in the odor of sanctity at age 18. ice wished to die on the eve of the Assumption of Our Lady, and he had a revelation that his desire was granted. On August 9, the vigil of Saint Lawrence, the saint whose devotion had fallen to him for this month, while in conference with his companions, he asked them what could be done to imitate this holy deacon in his martyrdom: each answered according to his own thought; and, for his part, he said that he desired to perform, in his honor, some public mortification, so that he might obtain from the Blessed Virgin to be presented in heaven on the day of her glorious Assumption. Indeed, that very day, having confessed his faults to the community in the refectory, he kissed the feet of all the religious, took his discipline, humbly asked one and all, as an alms, for the bread he was to eat, following the custom of the Company, and dined humbly on the floor, as unworthy to be seated with his brothers. From there, he went to serve in the kitchen, where, seeing the fire lit, he entered into a deep meditation on the torment of Saint Lawrence, lying on the gridiron. His application was so great that, joined to the mortifications he had performed that day, it caused him to faint. He had to be lifted and carried to bed. Fever took him, and he was obliged to lie down. The doctors, being called, said it would be nothing; but he assured the Father Rector that he would die on the eve of mid-August. His strength diminished steadily thereafter, and a flow of blood, which occurred with a cold sweat, caused all hope for his life to be abandoned. Having received the sacraments, he prayed that he might be allowed to die on the floor. His heart and tongue were then occupied only with praising God for the grace He had granted him in calling him into the Company of Jesus, with conversing lovingly with Jesus and Mary, whose sacred images he had before his eyes, and with testifying to his joy at dying so soon to go and enjoy the sovereign happiness. He often kissed the wounds of the Savior, represented on his crucifix, and he had the litanies of the Saints he had had as patrons since he was a religious recited to him. Finally, the Blessed Virgin came herself to receive his soul, and he rendered it into her hands on August 15, 1568, a little after three o'clock in the morning, in the eighteenth year of his age and the tenth month only of his novitiate.

His face appeared so beautiful after his death that one would have said he was still alive. He was placed in a coffin, which was not done for other re église de Saint-André The saint's burial place and novitiate in Rome. ligious, and he was buried in the church of Saint Andrew, which is the house of probation. No one had yet been buried there, and he was the first who enriched this ground with the deposit of his precious remains. Everyone wanted to kiss his feet and attend his funeral; which made Doctor Francisco de Toledo, whom Pope Clement VIII later made a cardinal, say: "This is undoubtedly a wonderful thing, that a little Polish novice, who has just died, should be honored by the city of Rome as a Saint."

In the church of Saint Andrew on the Quirinal Hill in Rome, one can see several paintings representing the Saint. In one, he is seen receiving the holy infant Jesus in his arms from the Blessed Virgin. Two other paintings represent him bathing his chest, burning with divine love, with water, and receiving the holy host from the hand of an angel. One also sees everywhere, sculpted in white marble, a dove carrying an olive branch in its beak: a symbol of the purity, sweetness, and peace of which the young Stanislaus was as the living tabernacle.

## CULT AND RELICS.

The reputation of Stanislaus Kostka spread immediately after his death in Italy, in Poland, and throughout Europe, and his image became held in such veneration that there was no Polish prelate or lord who did not wish to possess it, and the king himself placed it in his gallery among the images of the Saints.

Great miracles were performed on all sides through his intercession; this led Pope Clement VI II, in 1664, to d pape Clément VIII Pope who approved the reform of the Trinitarians. eclare him blessed, and to grant ten years and ten quarantines of indulgences to those who would visit a chapel built in his honor in the kingdom of Poland. His tomb has become very famous for the supernatural healings that the sick have received there. He is invoked for heart palpitations, swellings, ruptures of the limbs, eye ailments, and quartan and continuous fevers.

Paul V approved an office in his honor for the churches of Poland. Clement X permitted the Jesuits to recite this office, and fixed the feast of the servant of God on November 13, the day on which his body was found, without any sign of corruption, in the novitiate church founded by Prince Pamphili. Our Holy Father Pope Pius IX attached rich indulgences to three prayers that can be found in the booklet entitled: *Nemoine* in honor of Saint Stanislaus Kostka, by the Reverend Father Picot de Clorivière (Paris, 1861). There are other booklets containing novenas and similar prayers in honor of Saint Aloysius Gonzaga (with even richer indulgences), of Saint Francis Regis, etc.; pastors cannot recommend them too highly; they would do even better to offer them to pious souls, and especially to the youth.

At Saint Andrew at the Quirinal is the Jesuit novitiate. The room or cell that Saint Stanislaus Kostka occupied has been preserved to this day and has been converted into a chapel. It is one of the sanctuaries that pious pilgrims most love to visit, either to offer the holy sacrifice there if they are priests, or to have the happiness of receiving communion there if they are laypeople. At the very place where Saint Stanislaus breathed his last, a monument in polychrome marble by Pierre Legros, a French sculptor (died 1719), has been placed. The Sain t is represen Pierre Legros French sculptor, author of the saint's funerary monument. ted lying on his bed; the head, hands, and feet are of white marble; the cassock is of black marble; the cushions and mattresses are of yellow marble. — In an adjoining room is the authentic portrait of the Saint. — The bones of Saint Stanislaus are in the church of Saint Andrew, on the ground floor, and enclosed under the altar of a chapel dedicated to him; the reliquary that contains them is of gilded silver and adorned with magnificent sculptures, large inlays of lapis lazuli, and a large number of other precious stones. Several lamps burn constantly before his tomb.

We have preserved the account of Fr. Giry, which we have reviewed and completed.