- Order of Saint Stanislaus
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Not to be confused with Order of Saint Stanislaus (Imperial House of Romanov) or International Order of Saint Stanislaus.
Cross of the Polish Order of Saint Stanislaus
Star of the Polish Order of Saint Stanislaus with Latin phrase Praemiando Incitat
Polish Order of Saint Stanislaus The Order of Saint Stanislaus (Polish: Order św. Stanisława Biskupa Męczennika, Russian: Орден Святого Станислава), also spelled Stanislas, was an Order in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and The Kingdom of Poland between 1765 and 1831 and of Russian Empire from 1831 to 1917.
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History of the Order of Saint Stanislaus
Stanisław August Poniatowski, King of Poland, established the Order of the Knights of Saint Stanislaus, Bishop and Martyr on May 8, 1765 to honor the service to the King.
After the partition of Poland it was recognized in the Grand Duchy of Warsaw in 1807. Since 1815 in the Polish (Congress) Kingdom, the Order, originally in a single class, was retained and divided into four classes. At 25 January 1831 Polish Parliament deposed tsar Nicholas I of Russia (also grand master of this Polish Order) from the throne of Poland. After the downfall of the November Uprising the Imperial House of Romanov created the Royal and Imperial Order of Saint Stanislaus and added it to the awards system of the Russian Empire in 1832, where it remained until 1917. In 1915 was recreated Kingdom of Poland independent from House of Romanov, next in 1918 Poland regained its independence as the Second Polish Republic, the Order was not renewed (probably because in its Russian form it was often awarded by the imperial government to those Poles who co-operated with it and thus the Order became discredited as a symbol of subservience to the Russian occupying power) and was replaced by the Order of Polonia Restituta.
The Insignia of the Polish and Russian Orders of St. Stanislaus
The original Polish badge of the order was a red enameled Maltese cross with white enameled Polish eagles between its arms and with a central medallion bearing an enameled image of Saint Stanislaus in his episcopal vestment surrounded by a gold laurel wreath. In the Russian version of this badge the Polish white eagles are replaced with gold Russian double-head imperial eagles, their wings parially overlaping the arms of the cross and the central medallion bear the letters "SS" in red on a white enamel background instead of the original image of the saintly bishop, surrounded by a green enamel laural wreath. There are also a semi-circle of gold rays between each of the points of arms of the Maltese cross. Both the Polish and Russian badges hung from a red ribbon with white strips near its borders (i.e., the colors of the Polish coat of arms and flag), a ribbon which they share with the modern Order of Polonia Restituta.
The Order also had a eight-pointed star with straight rays with a central medallion bearing the letters "SS" surrounded by the Latin words "Praemiando incitat", which is in turn surrounded by a laurel wreath. The Star has essentially the same design in both its Polish and Russian forms.
In its original Polish form the knights of the Order wore a red, white and silver habit modelled on the traditional dress of a Polish nobleman (i.e., zupan, kontusz, pas kontuszowy and delia).
The Orders of Saint Stanislaus in existence today
There are several Orders of Saint Stanislaus in existence today. These different Orders and grand-masters do not recognize each other as legitimate successors or revivals of the Order of Saint Stanislaus.
In chronological order:
- The Royal and Imperial Order of Saint Stanislaus, a house order issued by the head of the Imperial House of Romanov. This is the imperial Order that was abolished in Soviet Russia in 1918. Nevertheless the head of the Imperial House of Romanov occasionally awards crosses in this order.
- A false order of Saint Stanislaus was active in Italy in the 1950s. It no longer exists.
- The Order of Saint Stanislaus founded in 1979 by Juliusz Nowina-Sokolnicki, head of one of the two governments that claimed to be the successor to the exiled Polish government-in-exile that fled to London in 1939.
- Often mistakenly referred to as the Ukrainian chapter, on the 15th May 2004 Grand Priors from a number of Countries under "The Order of Saint Stanislas (1979)" met in Kiev and decided to break away and form "The International Order of Saint Stanislas" with Pavlo V'Yalov Grand Prior of Ukraine as its Grand Master.
Bibliography
- Stanisław Łoza, "Kawalerowie Orderu Świętego Stanisława 1765–1813" (Warszawa 1925)
- Norbert Wójtowicz, "Praemiando Incitat - Order Świętego Stanisława (Wybrane dokumenty)" (Warszawa 2007) ISBN 978-83-925702-0-2
External links
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