Certificate of International Order of Saint Stanislas

The International Order of Saint Stanislaus is a Polish

fraternal order A fraternal order is a fraternity organised as an order, with traits alluding to religious, chivalric or pseudo-chivalric orders, guilds, or secret societies. Contemporary fraternal orders typically have secular purposes, including social, cult ...

founded on 16 May 2004. Although claiming to follow the "code of

chivalry Chivalry, or the chivalric code, is an informal and varying code of conduct developed in Europe between 1170 and 1220. It was associated with the medieval Christianity, Christian institution of knighthood; knights' and gentlemen's behaviours we ...

" it acknowledges itself as a recently founded private organisation without

fount of honour The fount of honour ( la, fons honorum) is a person, who, by virtue of his or her official position, has the exclusive right of conferring legitimate titles of nobility and orders of chivalry on other persons. Origin During the High Middle Ages, ...

and no legitimate

order of chivalry An order of chivalry, order of knighthood, chivalric order, or equestrian order is an order (distinction), order of knights, typically founded during or inspired by the original Catholic Military order (religious society), military orders of the ...

. In doing so, the organisation frankly acknowledges the problems with its background organisation,

Ordo Sancti Stanislai The Ordo Sancti Stanislai is a Polish self-styled order founded on 9 June 1979 by Juliusz Nowina-Sokolnicki, in his claimed capacity as disputed President of the Polish Government in exile as an attempted revival of the Polish Order of Saint Stan ...

founded by

Juliusz Nowina-Sokolnicki Juliusz Nowina-Sokolnicki (born December 16, 1925, in Pinsk, d. August 17, 2009 in Colchester, England) was a Polish president and head of one of the two governments which claimed in 1972 to be the successor to the exiled Polish government that was ...

in 1979 as an attempted revival of the Polish

Order of Saint Stanislaus The Order of Saint Stanislaus ( pl, Order Św. Stanisława Biskupa Męczennika, russian: Орден Святого Станислава), also spelled Stanislas, was a Polish order of knighthood founded in 1765 by King Stanisław August Ponia ...

, in turn founded in 1765. The International Order of Saint Stanislaus is generally regarded as a

. It has been compared to the

masonic Freemasonry or Masonry refers to Fraternity, fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of Stonemasonry, stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their inte ...

movement.

History

Background

In 1979,

and a Polish exile group claiming to be the legitimate government founded the

, attempting to revive the Polish

, founded in 1765 as an

order of knighthood An order of chivalry, order of knighthood, chivalric order, or equestrian order is an order of knights, typically founded during or inspired by the original Catholic military orders of the Crusades ( 1099–1291) and paired with medieval concep ...

of the

Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and, after 1791, as the Commonwealth of Poland, was a bi-confederal state, sometimes called a federation, of Crown of the Kingdom of ...

, since it had been incorporated by the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

in 1831 as the

Order of Saint Stanislaus (Imperial House of Romanov) pl, Order św. Stanisława , image = , caption = , image2 = , caption2 = Ribbon of the order , awarded_by = Head of the House of Romanov , type = Dynastic order of knighthood , motto ...

. However, the management of the new organisation resulted in several claimed successor movements. During the 1990s, disputes with Juliusz Nowina-Sokolnicki caused several national sub-groups of this organisation, called

priories A priory is a monastery of men or women under religious vows that is headed by a prior or prioress. Priories may be houses of mendicant friars or nuns (such as the Dominicans, Augustinians, Franciscans, and Carmelites), or monasteries of monk ...

, to break away.

Foundation

In 2004, several of the existing national priories of the Ordo Sancti Stanislai joined together to create the International Order of Saint Stanislaus as an alliance of national groups.

Notes

External links

International Order of St Stanislaus, Ukraine
(English language page)
British Association of Chevaliers of the Order of Saint Stanislas
{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200719174832/https://www.ststanislas.org.uk/ , date=19 July 2020 Charities based in Poland Fraternal orders 2004 establishments in Poland