St. Stanislaus – the forerunner of the independence of the Church from the state

On May 8, we celebrate the feast of St. Stanislaus the Bishop, the patron saint of Poland. The martyrdom of the Bishop of Kraków at the hands of King Bolesław the Brave – which resulted in his being stripped of the royal crown and exiled from the country – is a milestone in building the autonomy of the Church from the state and defining the mission of the “critical conscience” that the Church should always occupy towards the world of politics. S…