CatholicSaints.Info

Also known as

• Stanislaw Kostka

Memorial

• 15 August
• 18 September on some calendars
• 13 November on some calendars

Profile

Born to the Polish nobility, the son of a senator. Attended the Viennese Jesuit college from age 14 with his brother Paul, who badly mistreated him. While staying at the home of a Lutheran, he became gravely ill, but was not allowed to call for a priest. He prayed to his personal patron, Saint Barbara, who appeared to him in a vision with two angels, and administered Communion. He was then cured from his disease by Our Lady who told him to become a Jesuit, though it was against his family’s wishes. Attended the Jesuit college in Rome, Italy. Friend of Saint Peter Canisius. Jesuit novice from 28 October 1567. Student of Saint Francis Borgia.

Born

• 28 October 1550 at Rostkovo, Poland

Died

• between 3 and 4 a.m. of 15 August, feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, 1568 at Rome, Italy from a high fever
• buried at the newly built Sant’Andrea al Quirinale church

Beatified

• 8 October 1605 by Pope Paul V

Canonized

• 31 December 1726 by Pope Benedict XIII

Patronage

• against broken bones
• aspirants to the Oblates of Saint Joseph
• desperate, lost or impossible causes
• last sacraments
• young people
• –
• Lithuania (proclaimed on 10 January 1674 by Pope Clement X)
• Poland
• –
• in Poland
  • Metropolitan Seminary in Lublin
  • Plock, diocese of
  • Warsaw, archdiocese of
  • Warsaw, city of

Representation

• Holy Communion
• young man holding the Christ child

Readings

I find a heaven in the midst of saucepans and brooms. – Saint Stanislaus

Saint Stanislaus had drawn as his monthly patron for August the glorious martyr Saint Lawrence, and in his honour he performed daily some penance or devotion. On the eve of his feast, he obtained leave to take the discipline; in the morning he went to Communion, and then laid before the image of the saint a letter addressed to Our Lady, in which he begged that he might die on her Feast of the Assumption, and he prayed Saint Lawrence to present to her his petition. That night he was seized with a slight fever, which, however, rapidly increased; and on Assumption Eve, he received the last sacraments. Then, as he lay dying, he had brought to him a little book containing a litany in his own writing of his monthly patron saints, whom he constantly invoked. At 3 a.m. on the Feast of the Assumption, he face suddenly lit up with joy, and he breathed forth his soul to the Mother of God, who had come to conduct him to heaven. – from Miniature Lives of the Saints by Bowden

MLA Citation

• “Saint Stanislaus Kostka“. CatholicSaints.Info. 19 March 2024. Web. 29 May 2024. <>