Although he was only recognized as the patron saint of Poland by the Vatican in 2002, St. Andrzej Bobola was accorded a cult following much earlier than this, and venerated as the saint protector of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. He was seen as a special defender against the threat from first Tsarist Russia, then Orthodox Russia, then the Soviet Union – the Blessed’s intercession was associated with the victory of the Battle of Warsaw in 1920. For this reason, his beatification and canonization were part of political discourse.
Andrzej Bobola’s relics were originally stored in the Jesuit church in Pińsk, moved to Połock after its closure, and were taken to the Hygienic Exhibition in Moscow in 1922. Recovered thanks to the Pope’s intervention in 1924, they were taken to the Il Gesù Church in Rome. By the 1920s, Polish church authorities were already making efforts to canonize Andrzej Bobola and return his relics to Poland. Several Polish cities tried to obtain the saint’s remains, including Vilnius, Warsaw, Pińsk and even Janów Poleski.
The canonization, which took place on 17 April 1938, in particular the ceremonial return of the relics of St. Andrzej Bobola to Warsaw in June 1938, took the form of a great religious and patriotic demonstration. It was accompanied by numerous ceremonies in which the highest church and state authorities participated, with extensive paratheatrical scripts, as well as specially designed decorations and music composed for the occasion. The press reported these in great detail, constituting a fascinating case of an event of both great religious significance and broad political context.

The putting on of spectacular ceremonies finalizing the acts of beatification and canonization of Stanisław Kostka, taking place in the principal Jesuit centers of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, was an important artistic activity of modern times. The content programs of the decorations which accompanied the celebrations between 1606 and 1726, known to us from written sources, reflect the propaganda of the Kostka ceremonies. The oldest occasional decorations and outdoor shows taking place in the city of Jarosław had been organized on the initiative of his relative Anna née Kostka Ostrogska. They were organized in connection with the proclamation of Stanisław Kostka as Blessed by Pope Paul V in 1606. The theme of the decorations accentuated the importance of the moral values of this ascetic follower of the Counter-Reformation Church, while the widely used language of allegory defined his individual spiritual values and illustrated scenes from his life and miracles.
However, Stanisław Kostka soon became seen as an advocate of the Polish Lithuanian-Commonwealth in its military struggles in the East, especially in the conflict with the Ottoman Porte. After the victory of Chocim (Khotyn) in 1621 he was revered as the patron saint of the Polish knighthood, and after the victory at the Battle of Chocim in 1673 he was rapidly proclaimed (in 1674) one of the main patrons of the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. It was this aspect of Kostka’s promotion that was used in the decorative themes of his thanksgiving ceremonies after the closing of the beatification process and the decree of canonization by Pope Clement XI in 1714. The decorations of the Jesuit Church in Lublin, described in detail in the records of the Society of Jesus (1715), explained and glorified the new role of the young saint. His role as a guarantor of peace and stability of the Commonwealth, revealed in God’s eternal plans, was presented through astral configurations and complicated semantic systems. Kostka’s canonization, which had raised the importance of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, as being linked to the papacy and the Catholic faith, was seen as the culmination of a great historical message and the revelation of the secret given to Poland, also recognizable through astral configuration.
The military and diplomatic triumph over the Ottoman Porte was considered a breakthrough moment, opening a period of happiness achieved thanks to Kostka’s intervention and the support of Heaven. The result of a united front in the battle with a common enemy was to achieve a state of happiness that strengthened the ecclesiastical and monarchical order, an idea taken up by the decorations seen in Jarosław and Vilnius, amongst others. The ad hoc political content was moved to the sphere of the monastic political philosophy and historical theology.
An allusion to the happy future that mathematicians had supposedly predicted was also included in the decorations. After the partition of Poland and the dissolution of the Jesuit order, the revival of the fading cult of Stanislaw Kostka took place in the Second Polish Republic, particularly during the jubilee celebrations of the 200th anniversary of his canonization in 1927. This was seen in the ceremony of bringing his relics from Rome to the new church in Rostków, which was attended by the President of the Republic of Poland Ignacy Mościcki. However, there was a significant change in semantics as Stanisław Kostka was now described as the patron saint of children and youth, frequent Holy Communion and felicitous vocational choices.