Stanislaus was born of a noble Polish family and attended the Jesuit College in Vienna. After a serious illness and a vision that seemed to call him to the Society of Jesus, he walked from Vienna to Augsburg and then to Rome seeking admittance. St. Peter Canisius had recommended him to the head of the order at the time, St. Francis Borgia. After a brief stay at the Church of the Gesu and the Roman College, Stanislaus entered the novitiate of Sant'Andrea al Quirinale, where he died after only about 10 months. Though he was in the Society only for a brief while, his sanctity was widely recognized, and he was canonized in 1726.
POLAND issued the postal card below to commemorate the 450th anniversary of his birth in 2000. The image on the card is Pierre Le Gros the Younger's multicolored marble work, The Death of St. Stanislaus Kostka (1705), in Sant'Andrea al Quirinale, Rome. The stamp bears a portrait of the saint from 1568, the year of his death.
