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St. Andrew Bobola May 16 apostleshipofprayer St. Andrew BobolaMore
St. Andrew Bobola May 16

apostleshipofprayer St. Andrew Bobola
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Andrew Bobola (Polish: Andrzej Bobola: 1591 – 16 May 1657) was a Polish missionary and martyr of the Society of Jesus, known as the apostle of Lithuania and the "hunter of souls".[1]
Contents
1 Biography
2 Relics and canonization
3 Modern Bobolas
4 See also
5 References
6 External links
Biography
He was born in 1591 into a noble family in Strachocina, Poland. In 1611 he entered the JesuitsMore
Andrew Bobola (Polish: Andrzej Bobola: 1591 – 16 May 1657) was a Polish missionary and martyr of the Society of Jesus, known as the apostle of Lithuania and the "hunter of souls".[1]
Contents

1 Biography
2 Relics and canonization
3 Modern Bobolas
4 See also
5 References
6 External links
Biography
He was born in 1591 into a noble family in Strachocina, Poland. In 1611 he entered the Jesuits in Vilnius, Lithuania. He subsequently took solemn vows in 1630 and then served for several years as an advisor, preacher, superior of a cloister, etc., in various places. From 1652 he also worked as a country "missionary", in among other places Polotsk, Lithuania, where he was probably stationed in 1655, and also in Pinsk, Lithuania (both now in Belarus). On 16 May 1657, during the Khmelnytsky Uprising, he was captured in the village of Peredil, Lithuania by the Cossacks of Chmielnicki and subjected to a variety of tortures and killed (in Janów Poleski).
One description of Bobola's death written in 1865 states:[2]
In the same year, the Cossacks surprised a holy Polish Jesuit, in the town of Pinsk, and conferred on him the palm of martyrdom, on the 16th of May, 1657. Father Andrew Bobola, whose untiring zeal had rendered him obnoxious to the schismatics, had just offered up the holy sacrifice, when a horde of Cossacks attacked the town. On beholding the barbarians, Father Bobola fell upon his knees, raised his eyes and his hands toward heaven, and, having a presentiment that his hour had arrived, exclaimed, "Lord, thy will be done!" At that moment, the Cossacks rushed upon him, stripped him of his holy habit, tied him to a tree, placed a crown upon his head, as did the Jews upon the head of our adorable Saviour, after which they scourged him, tore out one of his eyes, burned his body with torches, and one of the ruffians traced, with his poignard, the form of a tonsure on the head of the venerable Father, and on his back the figure of a chasuble! To do this, the executioner had to strip off the skin of the holy martyr! But this was not yet all. The fingers of the apostle had received the priestly unction. The executioner tore from them the skin, and forced needles under his nails! And during this indescribable torture, the hero prayed for his tormentors; he preached, both by word and example, until the schismatics tore out his tongue and crushed his head! Father Andrew Bobola, whom the Church declared Blessed, the 30th of October, 1853, was sixty-five years of age.
Relics and canonization

Andrzej Bobola memorial church in Janów Poleski. A 19th-century photo.
At the beginning of the 18th century nobody knew where his corpse was buried. In 1701 Father Martin Godebski, the rector of the Pinsk college reputedly had a vision of Bobola. This caused him to order a search for the body. It was reportedly found completely undecomposed, which was recognized by the Church and its supporters as proof of holiness. In 1719 the casket was officially reopened and the body inspected by qualified medical personnel (five physicians and pharmacists). It was reportedly still completely undecomposed: pliable and with the soft flesh.

The altar with the relics of the arm of Andrew Bobola in the church of Il Gesù in Rome.
In 1922 Bolsheviks moved the corpse, later described by an American journalist as a "remarkably well-preserved mummy",[3] to the Museum of Hygiene of People's Commissioners of Health in Moscow. The whereabouts of the relics was not known to the Catholic authorities, and Pope Pius XI charged the Papal Relief Mission in Russia, headed by American Jesuit Edmund A. Walsh, with the task of locating and "rescuing" them.[3] In October 1923— as a kind of "pay" for help during famine — the relics were released to Walsh and his Assistant Director Louis J. Gallagher. Well packed by the two Jesuits, the relics were delivered to the Holy See by Gallagher on All Saints' Day (1 November) 1923.[3][4] In May 1924, the relics were installed in Rome's Church of the Gesu, the main church of the Society of Jesus.[4]
Since 17 June 1938 the body has been in Warsaw.
Declared Blessed by Pius IX on 30 October 1853, Bobola was canonized by Pope Pius XI on 17 April 1938. His feast day is held on 16 May. Since 16 May 2002 Andrew Bobola is a patron saint of Poland and the Archdiocese of Warsaw.
Today some join St. Andrew with St. Peter the Aleut, an alleged martyr for the Orthodox faith from the hands of Roman Catholics, in a special devotion for the reunion of the two branches of Christianity. However, the historicity of the martyrdom of Peter the Aleut is not clearly established.
Modern Bobolas
It is assumed that a part of the Bobola family exists to this day under the name of Bobola, they currently live mainly in Warsaw (about 30 persons), Poland. This is a part which, precisely, seems to have been rooted in Pinsk for some time. In the 17th century, a nobleman from Pinsk underwriting himself as Bobola used the Leliwa coat of arms, the same as Saint Andrew Bobola's ones. Nevertheless, most of them still bear the name of Bobola and are spread whole over Poland (more than 200 persons).
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Bobola