Ecce Verbum
Saint Andrew Bobola- venator animarum of the Orthodox, a Saint for the difficult times (1591-1657) He gave his life during the conflict between Catholics and Orthodox that formed part of the war between Polish and Russian forces in the mid-seventeenth century.…
First they tried to permit Bobola to renounce his religion. When he refused, they stripped him and tied him to a hedge and whipped him cruelly. Mocking his faith, they placed a crown of twigs on his head and then dragged him to his place of execution, a butcher's shop. He still refused to apostatize, so they placed him on the butcher's table and tortured him cruelly, tearing the skin off his chest and back and cutting holes in the palms of his hands. They continued to torture him for two hours. before finally driving an awl into his heart. Then they strung him up by his feet and killed him with a saber blow.
Just as he died, a band of Poles arrived at Janów in a vain attempt to rescue him. They took his body back to Pinsk where they placed it in the crypt beneath the Jesuit church.
The cult of the saint grew, and crowds came to the grave. In the first half of the eighteenth century 300 graces and miracles took place.
In 1714, the Polish Jesuits began efforts to beatify their confrere. Reports of miraculous healings prompted the laity, including King August II, to send requests to Rome for the beatification of Fr. Bobola. In 1808, a coffin with the corpse of Fr. Bobola was transferred to Połock. In the meantime, Poland was annexed. Połock with the grave of Father Bobola was under Russian rule.
It was not until Pope Pius VII officially restored the Jesuit order that the martyr's beatification was renewed. Bobola was beatified by Pope Pius IX in Rome in 1853.
Meanwhile, on June 23rd, 1922, the Bolsheviks took away the body of St. Andrew Bobola from Polotsk to Moscow and after examination they put him on public display at the Museum of Hygiene. This insult outraged the Poles.
In 1924, the papal mission to help the starving Russians regained the relics of the martyr and transported them to Rome. There the body of St. Andrew was placed in the Jesuit church of the Gesù. Confirmed miracles contributed to the canonisation of St. Andrew in Rome by Pope Pius XI in 1938.
After the canonisation efforts were made to bring the relics of St. Andrew Bobola to Poland. On June 8th, 1938, the coffin in procession was transported through Slovenia, Hungary, Czechoslovakia to Poland. The Vatican Congregation for Sacred Rites and Ceremonies said that no martyrdom as cruel as this had been recorded in the history of the Church.
Also Pope Pius XII, Andrew Bobola's apostolic zeal in his encyclical "The Invincible Mighty One of Christ", emphasized with the words: Swordsman of Christ, Soulmaker, that is, hunter of immortal souls, tireless Apostle of Christ, Holy Polish Martyr. Andrew Bobola was all his life on the road, in constant motion. He travelled vast distances, and this at a time when on trackless and dirt roads one travelled by horse-drawn carriage, and more often by cart. It took character and courage to cope with such a pilgrim life in times of constant war. An impetuous, proud nobleman from the Lesser Poland region with vices characteristic of his time and origin, he worked hard on his character, as Pope Pius XII reminded him: "Having in mind this so important admonition of Christ: <Whoever wishes to come after me, let him deny himself and, taking up his cross every day, let him follow me> (Lk 9:23), he set about earnestly acquiring Christian humility through self-denial. And because by nature he had a certain tendency to haughtiness and impatience and a touch of stubbornness, he gave himself an unrelenting battle. Through this struggle, as it were, he took the Cross of Christ on his shoulders and walked with it to Calvary, so that at its summit he might attain at the same time, by the grace of God, that perfection of humility longed for and fervently won by prayers, through which one attains to all the splendours of Christian holiness."
Andrew Bobola's desire to follow the way of Jesus, his stubbornness, his consistency, his courage, led him to the heights of Christian charity, to the point of sacrificing his life.
#saints #bobola
Just as he died, a band of Poles arrived at Janów in a vain attempt to rescue him. They took his body back to Pinsk where they placed it in the crypt beneath the Jesuit church.
The cult of the saint grew, and crowds came to the grave. In the first half of the eighteenth century 300 graces and miracles took place.
In 1714, the Polish Jesuits began efforts to beatify their confrere. Reports of miraculous healings prompted the laity, including King August II, to send requests to Rome for the beatification of Fr. Bobola. In 1808, a coffin with the corpse of Fr. Bobola was transferred to Połock. In the meantime, Poland was annexed. Połock with the grave of Father Bobola was under Russian rule.
It was not until Pope Pius VII officially restored the Jesuit order that the martyr's beatification was renewed. Bobola was beatified by Pope Pius IX in Rome in 1853.
Meanwhile, on June 23rd, 1922, the Bolsheviks took away the body of St. Andrew Bobola from Polotsk to Moscow and after examination they put him on public display at the Museum of Hygiene. This insult outraged the Poles.
In 1924, the papal mission to help the starving Russians regained the relics of the martyr and transported them to Rome. There the body of St. Andrew was placed in the Jesuit church of the Gesù. Confirmed miracles contributed to the canonisation of St. Andrew in Rome by Pope Pius XI in 1938.
After the canonisation efforts were made to bring the relics of St. Andrew Bobola to Poland. On June 8th, 1938, the coffin in procession was transported through Slovenia, Hungary, Czechoslovakia to Poland. The Vatican Congregation for Sacred Rites and Ceremonies said that no martyrdom as cruel as this had been recorded in the history of the Church.
Also Pope Pius XII, Andrew Bobola's apostolic zeal in his encyclical "The Invincible Mighty One of Christ", emphasized with the words: Swordsman of Christ, Soulmaker, that is, hunter of immortal souls, tireless Apostle of Christ, Holy Polish Martyr. Andrew Bobola was all his life on the road, in constant motion. He travelled vast distances, and this at a time when on trackless and dirt roads one travelled by horse-drawn carriage, and more often by cart. It took character and courage to cope with such a pilgrim life in times of constant war. An impetuous, proud nobleman from the Lesser Poland region with vices characteristic of his time and origin, he worked hard on his character, as Pope Pius XII reminded him: "Having in mind this so important admonition of Christ: <Whoever wishes to come after me, let him deny himself and, taking up his cross every day, let him follow me> (Lk 9:23), he set about earnestly acquiring Christian humility through self-denial. And because by nature he had a certain tendency to haughtiness and impatience and a touch of stubbornness, he gave himself an unrelenting battle. Through this struggle, as it were, he took the Cross of Christ on his shoulders and walked with it to Calvary, so that at its summit he might attain at the same time, by the grace of God, that perfection of humility longed for and fervently won by prayers, through which one attains to all the splendours of Christian holiness."
Andrew Bobola's desire to follow the way of Jesus, his stubbornness, his consistency, his courage, led him to the heights of Christian charity, to the point of sacrificing his life.
#saints #bobola