St. Andrew Bobola

St. Andrew Bobola was born on 30 November 1591 in the region of Sandomierz in Poland, of a noble family, and entered the Society of Jesus, being ordained a priest. A zealous and eloquent preacher, he labored in the eastern borderlands of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, in Vilnius, Polotsk, Pinsk, and the marshy region of Polesia, where he won great numbers back to the Catholic faith, earning the title Apostle of Pinsk and of Lithuania, though his very success made him hated by his opponents.

During the wars and religious strife that tore the region, he was seized in 1657 by Cossack raiders hostile to the Catholic Church. Refusing to renounce his faith, he was subjected to prolonged and horrific tortures and at last killed at Janów on 16 May 1657. His body was later found incorrupt, and his fame as a martyr spread widely. He was canonized in 1938 and is honored as a patron of Poland, celebrated on 16 May.