Saint Andrew Bobola
Polish Jesuit missionary killed at Janów in 1657 during the Cossack uprising
- Rank
- Saint
- Kind
- Martyr, Priest, Missionary
- Life
- 1591 – 1657
- Era
- 17th century
- Feast
- 16 May
- Countries
- Poland, Belarus
Life story
Andrew Bobola was born in 1591 at Strachocina in the Sandomierz region of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. He entered the Jesuits in Vilnius in 1611 and was ordained a priest in 1622. He became known as a preacher and was called the Apostle of Lithuania.
From 1652 he worked as a missionary in rural Lithuania, including Polotsk and Pinsk, now in Belarus. The region was then contested between Catholic, Orthodox and other Christian communities, and he worked to bring believers into the Catholic Church.
In 1657, during the Khmelnytsky Uprising, Cossack bands swept through the area. He was captured near Pinsk and killed at Janów (now Ivanava, Belarus) on 16 May 1657. Accounts of the manner of his torture vary and cannot be fully checked, so they are not repeated here.
His body was lost and was found again in Pinsk in the early eighteenth century; according to tradition, it was located thanks to a vision. Pius IX beatified him on 30 October 1853 and Pius XI canonised him on 17 April 1938. Since 2002 he has been one of the patron saints of Poland, by decision of the Polish Bishops' Conference.
Works and witness
- Joined the Jesuits in Vilnius in 1611; ordained in 1622
- Missionary at Polotsk and Pinsk from 1652
- Killed by Cossack troops at Janów on 16 May 1657
- His body was found again at Pinsk in the early eighteenth century
- Canonised in 1938
Patron of
One of the patron saints of Poland (since 2002)
Saints from the same country
References
- Martyrologium Romanum
- Decrees of beatification (1853) and canonisation (1938)
Written by Anawim from documented history. Some details about ancient saints rest on tradition and are marked as such.