The Saints: St. Andrew Bobola  

c. 1591 - 1657 / Feast - May 16

Born to a Polish family, Andrew studied with Jesuits in Lithuania and was ordained a Jesuit in 1622. He successfully pastored two communities before a period of ill health 1643-49. Hostility toward Catholics escalated where he was serving, despite a formal agreement between the Roman Catholic and Russian Orthodox churches to peacefully coexist. In Pinsk (Belarus), Andrew encouraged the persecuted Poles, but was captured by Cossacks and suffered a horrific martyrdom: whipped, dragged, skinned, and pierced by awl and sword..