THE FIRST ANNIVERSARY OF PASSING THE “CONSTITUTION ACT”
Preparations for celebrating the anniversary of the Constitution of 3rd May started several months in advance. The most important decisions about the celebrations were taken during a Sejm session on 15th March 1792. It was decided to connect the Constitution celebration with the name day of Stanislaw August and with official thanks from the voivodship, land, and district deputies for the Constitution. The national marshals were to prepare a detailed plan for the celebrations. In April 1792, Pope Pius VI gave permission to move the holiday of St. Stanislaw from 8th May to 3rd May.
On 3rd May 1792, the main celebrations began at 9 o’clock in the Church of St. Cross on Krakowskie Przedmiescie Street in Warsaw. It started with a jubilee session of the Sejm during which delegates from each provincial sejm (Lesser Poland, Greater Poland and the Great Lithuanian Principality) delivered speeches of thanksgiving. Then a solemn mass was celebrated by the Bishop of Poznań, Antoni Okęcki, and the sermon was delivered by priest Antoni Malinowski. Later the participants went in procession to Ujazdowski Square, where Stanisław August laid the cornerstone under the Temple of Divine Providence. The construction of the church, as a votive gift of the nation for the passing of the Constitution Act had been proclaimed in the Declaration of the Assembled States. Today, there is still a preserved fragment of the construction of that church, on the grounds of the Botanical Garden.
The celebrations, which were planned thoroughly and on a grand scale, were supposed to show the nation’s support for the introduce reforms and the nation’s unity in the face of a difficult political situation and the threat of Russian intervention.
