Andrew Bobola (1591–1657)

Biography

Every time in recent history that the Polish nation has been submerged by invasions and has been a victim of dismemberment, the defense of faith and hope for the future have materialized in miraculous events through the intercession of this Jesuit. He was a native of the south of the country, he was educated with the Society of Jesus, which he applied to join and in 1622 he was ordained as a priest in Vilnius. In this city he exercised his ministry, standing out as a preacher, director of consciences and man of inexhaustible charity, caring for the sick and dying, especially during the plague of 1625. But his impulsive and fiery character led him to want to live in the places of greatest risk, and from 1633 until his death he was one of the most active missionaries in the eastern part of what was then Poland, a region disputed by the Russians and with a large majority of inhabitants who They vacillated between the Orthodox schism and the Roman Church. For a quarter of a century Andrés Bóbola lived on this dangerous frontier of Catholicity, while wars, massacres of religious people, devastations and threats of all kinds took place around him, until in May 1657 he was captured by the Cossacks and died amid savage torture (his martyrdom is considered one of the bloodiest in the entire history of the Church). He was canonized in 1938 and his mortal remains are venerated in Warsaw, where he is Patron.