St. Stanislaus Kostka
Feast Day: August 15
Born in the family castle in Poland, Stanislaus was educated privately, then at a Jesuit college in Vienna, Austria.
After having visions during a serious illness, he decided to enter the Jesuits.
His father, a Polish senator, opposed this; he wanted Stanislaus to become a diplomat.
Rejected by the Vienna Jesuits, Stanislaus walked to the Upper Germany province, where Peter Canisius took him in, then sent him to Rome.
In 1567, the father general accepted Stanislaus into the Society of Jesus; for the nine months before his death in Rome, he lived a life of mortifications, ecstasies and holiness.
A patron saint of Poland, he was canonized in 1726 with another Jesuit novice, Aloysius Gonzaga.
