Also known as Andrzej Bobola

Memorial 16 May 21 February in Poland

Profile Polish nobility. Studied at the Jesuit school at Sandomir. Entered the Jesuits on 31 July 1611 at Vilna, Lithuania. Studied and taught philosophy. Ordained on 12 March 1622. Parish priest at Vilna in 1625. Superior of the Jesuit community at Bobrinks in 1630. Worked with the sick during a plague outbreak. Successful missionary to the Orthodox from 1636 to 1656, preaching along the roads, bringing whole villages back to Catholicism. In 1652 Prince Radziwell gave Andrew a house in Pinsk as a refuge for Jesuits hiding from the Cossacks and Tartars. Captured just after Mass on 10 May 1657 during a Cossack raid on Pinsk. He was severely beaten, dragged by horses, tortured, hacked with knives, skinned alive, and murdered for being a Christian; he never surrendered his faith. Martyr.

Born 30 November 1591 at Sandormir, Poland Died beheaded at Janow on 16 May 1657 at Pinsk; buried at the Jesuit school in Pinsk, but his grave was forgotten when the Jesuits were forced to abandon the town; he later appeared in visions to the rector of the school, pointing out his grave;

relics translated to Polosk in 1808; body found incorrupt; later taken to Moscow by the Bolsheviks; taken to Rome in 1922; currently entombed at the Jesuit church in Cracow, Poland

Name Meaning strong, manly (Andrew)

Beatified 30 October 1853 by Pope Pius IX Canonized 17 April 1938 by Pope Pius XI Patronage Poland Warsaw, Poland, archdiocese of

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