Saint Andrew Bobola,
In this Hour of Darkness - Pray for us.

We pray for your intercession before our Most Glorious Lord Jesus Christ
that we may have the strength to endure the unendurable...

The Protection of the Great God Almighty in the midst of persecution and
the Grace to accept his will...whatever that may be.

St Andrew Stand with Me
Give me Fortitude and Peace of Soul 
Let not my Faith Waiver

Let me stand faithfully in union with the Sacred Heart of Christ, under the protection of His Immaculate Mother
Always Trusting in the Infinite Mercy and Love of God - Our Father

Amen

The Life and Story of St. Andrew Bobola - "God's Hunter of Souls" 
Memorial Feast Day - May 16th

Often referred to as the Martyr of Poland, Andrew Bobola (Andrzej Bobola, 1597-1657) 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. 

Cossacks opposed to the Jesuit's forceful defense of Catholics butchered Bobola but could not break his faithful commitment to the Church.

He was born in southern Poland to a family that was part of the lesser nobility. He studied at a Jesuit school and then entered the novitiate in 1611. After studying philosophy and theology at Vilnius, he was assigned to be the pastor of the Jesuit church in Nesvizh where he made many converts. After two years there, he returned to Vilnius for 16 years during which he became known for his preaching and for developing sodalities whose members performed ministry to prisoners and taught catechism to children. He and the sodalists also acted heroically during two periods when the plague struck Vilnius.

In 1630 he moved to Bobruisk in eastern Poland where the majority of people were Orthodox and many Catholics had given up their faith, partly because they did not have their own priests and churches. Bobola took on a variety of works in various towns, until poor health restricted what he could do and he returned again to Vilnius. 


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. His body was later removed to a museum in Moscow and only returned to Poland in 1923.

• The origin of St. Andrew (in Polish: Andrzej) Bobola was unknown as late as to the half of XX century.
• Historians have no doubt: the future Saint was born in Strachocina, Poland.
• It happened in 1591, perhaps on November 30. - the exact day and month are uncertain.
• Today in the local parish church in Strachocina they show an old gothic baptismal basin made of stone that (perhaps) was used during baptizing baby Andrew.
• He was a member of the lesser branch of an old and illustrious family of Bobolas. His father Krzysztof was the tenant of the estate in Strachocina.
• Strachocina is a relatively big village in Ziemia Sanocka (Sanok Land), a part of Malopolska - "Little Poland". (in Latin: Polonia Minor). In the rare document handwritten (in Latin) by the Saint that has preserved to our times He calls Himself: "native from Malopolska" (in Latin: Polonus Minor).
• During years 1606 (?) - 1611 he studied at Jesuit college in Braniewo, Poland (and not in Vilnius, Lithuania as they believed till not long ago).
• Later he entered the convent in Vilnius (in 1611). He took his monastic vows on July 31. 1613.
• Graduated in philosophy (1613 -1616) at the Vilnius University. He studied there theology (1618 - 1622) too but did not succeed to pass the last and most important examination.
• He took his holy orders on March 12. 1623.
• 1623 - 1624 he was a rector of the church in Nieswiez, Lithuania.
• 1624 - 1630 a preacher and a confessor at the church of St. Casimir in Vilnius.
• 1626 - 1630 a rector at the same church. Also an advisor of the prepositor (1628 - 1630).
• In June 2. 1630 he made his four solemn vows at the church of St. Casimir in Vilnius.
• In years 1630 - 1633 in Bobrujsk on Berezyna, Lithuania (as a superior of a cloister).
• 1633 - 1636 in Plock, Poland.
• 1636 - 1637 in Warsaw, Poland (as a preacher).
• 1637 - 1638 again in Plock (as the prefect of a council and a preacher).
• 1638 - 1642 in Lomza, Poland (an advisor of a rector, a preacher and a director of a college).
• 1646 - 1657 again at the church of St. Casimir in Vilnius (sermons, lectures, advisory functions, missions).
• From 1652 he worked as a country missionary too. Among other places in Polock, Lithuania, where he probably stationed in 1655. Also in Pinsk, Lithuania and locality.
• Known as "an Apostle of Pinszczyzna" and "a hunter of souls".
• In May 16. 1657 He was captured in the village Peredil, Lithuania by the Cossacks of Chmielnicki, subjected to incredible slow and diabolical tortures (amputated limbs, flayed skin, burn wounds, wood slivers driven underneath the fingernails, cut-off nose) and killed (in Janów Poleski).

• Declared Blessed by Pius IX on October 30. 1853.
• Canonized by Pope Pius XII on April 17. 1938 r.
• On May 16 1957 Pope Pius Xll promulgated encyclical Invicti Athletae devoted to St. Andrew. 
  
  At the beginning of XVIII century nobody knew where the corpse of the Saint Martyr was burried.
• In 1701 Father Martin Godebski, the rector of the Pinsk college had a vision of Andrew Bobola (compare visions of Father Niznik). This caused him to order search for the body. It was found completely undecomposed that was widely recognized as a proof of holiness.
• In 1719 casket was officially reopened and the body inspected by qualified medical personnel (five physicians and pharmacists). It was still completely undecomposed: pliable, the flesh soft (for further details go to The incorrupted body of St. Andreas Bobola).
• In 1922 Bolsheviks moved the corpse to Moscow as an exhibit ("curiosity", just due to its good condition) in the Museum of Hygiene of People's Commissioners of Health.
• In May 1924 the holy relic - as a kind of "pay" for help during great starvation - was delivered to the Holy Sea.
• Since June 17. 1938 it has been in Warsaw.
• Since April 17. 1988 in a newbuilt Sanctuary of the Saint Andrew Bobola at Rakowiecka street.
• Since May 16, 2002 St. Andrew Bobola is a saint