1999 Meeting in Palace Nieborów.The Grand Magistry meeting took place in the former
residence of the princely family Radziwill, today a
Museum. The Director of the museum, Stefan Górski,
invited to the Prince Radziwill’s Chapel where Bishop
Zawitkowski was asked of offer prayers so that the
members of the Grand Magistry should be
strengthened in order to serve those who should
receive the Order’s support. After this deeply moving
and sublime event, the Grand Magistry was invited to
Prince Radziwill’s dining room for a dinner, where the
work of the Order was discussed, and the candidates
for the Order’s Year 2000 Investiture were selected.
The list was established as follows:
First Class
H.E. President Lech Walesa,
H.E. Marian Węgrowski, Deputy Grand Chancellor of
the Order,
Chev. Frank Halada, USA Philanthropist,
Second Class
Prof. Tadeusz Adamek, Ph.D.,
H.E. Dominik Kuroski,
Third Class
H.E. Janina Manko,
Dame Elżbieta Jarguz,
Chev. Andrzej Herfurt,
Chev. Cezary Kempiński,
Chev. Adam Koperkowicz, Director of National
Museum of Gdańsk,
Chev. Andrzej Maj-Majewski,
Father Leonard Nałęcz-Sadowski,
Chev. Gregor Oszast, M.S. Mayor of City Wrocław,
Chev. Marian Sala,
Chev. Tadeusz Wojarski,
Chev. Prof. Wiesław Wysocki, Ph.D.
Next, the members of the Grand Magistry went to the
Palace Library, where coffee was served, and lecture
was given. His Excellency Piotr Galik, Ph.D., an
assistant Professor of History of the University of
Wrocław, spoke on the role and meaning of the
Order’s Grand masters in the history of Poland.The Order of St. Stanislas, one of the most significant
jewels of Polish National heritage, shared fates of
Poland in the most tragic times of partition and struggle,
reunification, and independence.
“Deus Mirabilis, Fortuna Variabilis”“The Lord makes miracles, fate changes.” After the
defeat of Austrian, German and Russian Empires during
World War I, the independent and united state Poland
reemerged in 1918, as a parliamentary Republic. The
Order of St. Stanislas was not revived by the new
government. A decoration similar in design and role,
Polonia Restituta Order, an award for civilian merit, was
instituted instead. One should remember that anti-
clerical intellectual trends were strong, and the role of
Freemasonry in Europe was significant. It is not
surprising that the Patron Saint of Poland could not find
a proper place, between the Regalia of the new
republican state. But the Idea of the Order was alive, just
like a spark between the cinders.
In the year 1979, Poland remained still under Soviet
oppression. The Government of Poland in Exile,
representing free and independent Poles, revived the
Order of St. Stanislas, to commemorate the 900th
anniversary of the Patron’s martyrdom. The President of
Poland in Exile, Juliusz Nowina Sokolnicki, became the
Grand Master of the Order. The Order’s Statute
introduced 5 classes of decorations. In the period of final
struggle against the Evil Empire of the Red Star, the
Order remained under the Protection of the
Government of Poland in Exile, from 1979 – 1990. In
December 1990, Poland once again became an
independent state. A few weeks earlier, the President in
Exile had sent documents to the Constitutional Tribunal
in Warsaw. It is president, Professor Tyczka, was
requested to transfer all governmental authority to the
new freely elected president, Mr. Lech Wałęsa.
With the downfall of the Communist regime, Mr. Lech
Wałęsa became the first democratic elected President
of Poland since the Second World War. The Polish
President-in-Exile returned the Polish Orders to the
homeland when he handed over the Presidential seal of
the Grand Master of the Orders of the White Eagle and
Polonia Restituta to the President in a ceremony in
Warsaw on 22nd December 1990. The new Republic of
Poland, presently the third, once again did not recreate
the Order of St. Stanislas. Prior to this event, Juliusz
Nowina Sokolnicki issued a decree, to withdraw the
Order of St. Stanislas from the orders of the Republic of
Poland and to transfer it back to the jurisdiction of Polish
Government in Exile.
Right: The former official President of Poland, Chev.
Lech Wałęsa, with Grand Sash of the First Class of the
Order of St. Stanislas, together with Father Henryk
Jankowski.