This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (October 2009)

Cross of the Polish Order of Saint Stanislaus from XVIII century

Star of the Polish Order of Saint Stanislaus with Latin phrase Praemiando Incitat

Polish Order of Saint Stanislaus

The Order of Saint Stanislaus Bishop Martyr (Polish: Order św. Stanisława Biskupa Męczennika), also spelled Stanislas, was an Order in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and The Kingdom of Poland between 1765 and 1831.

[edit] History of the Order of Saint Stanislaus

Stanislaus II Augustus 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 and was replaced by the Order of Polonia Restituta.

[edit] 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 (1979)]] 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.

• The Order of Saint Stanislaus (1990) founded by Polish citizens as a confraternity organization award headed by Prof. Marek Kwiatkowski and Stanislaw Iwanczak. This Order of Saint Stanislaus is meant to be a restoration of the former Polish order (1765-1832). The new order is not, however, an official order of the Polish State. The new Order of Saint Stanislas divided into four grand priories (of Poland, Germany, Malta, and Finland). The Grand Priories of Germany, of Malta, and of Finland belong to the order headquartered in Poland, and it is headed by a grand master, currently Prof. Dr. Marek Kwiatkowski. The government of the new order is seated in the Łazienki Palace in Warsaw.

• 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 it's Grand Master.

[edit] 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

[edit] External links

• The Order of St. Stanislas
• The Self-Styled Order of St. Stanislas of Mr. Juliusz Nowina-Sokolnicki
• Opinion of G. Stair Sainty
• The Once and Perhaps Still Lucrative Trade in Polish Military Decorations