Blessed Andrew Bobola

Andrew Bobola was born in 1592 in Pola Pologne Country of which he is one of the principal patrons. nd, in the Palatinate o f Sandom Sandomir Birthplace and site of the saint's early studies. ir. His family was illustrious and Christian. The child was raised in piety and sent early to the Jesuit college in Sandomir. In this house, his virtues grew along with his talents, and he did not delay in manifesting his intention to consecrate himself to God by entering the Order of his masters. The Bobola family had always protected the Jesuits, who had been, in many circumstances, the objects of their generosity. God rewarded their charity by choosing from their midst the Blessed Bobola to make him a martyr who would perpetuate His glory. On July 13, 1611, Andrew entered the novitiate in the city of Wilna. During the two years that elapsed until 16 13, h Wilna Site of the novitiate and preaching. e constantly showed himself to be a model for all his companions. For three years he studied philosophy under the direction of Father Marquet who, seeing the piety of his student and his remarkable talents, conceived great hopes for him. Upon completing his philosophy, he taught successively in the city of Brunsberg and at the college of Pultava, where he won the affection of all his students while leading them to virtue through his life, which was full of admirable examples of piety. In 1621, he received the subdiaconate and the diaconate, and the following year the priesthood, after having followed a course of theology where he had as his master Father Marquet, who had taught him philosophy.

Andrew Bobola was 32 years old when we first see him engaged in the ministry of preaching at the Church of Saint Casimir in Wilna. The good he did in that city and the influence he acquired there were immense. On June 2, 1630, he made his solemn profession of the four vows and became superior of the residence at Bobruisk. He spent five years there practicing the most humble virtues, his virtues of predilection. During this time, he also had the opportunity to show his ardent charity during a contagion that ravaged Lithuania. He gave himself without reserve and without any precaution to the relief of the sick, and by a very special permission of Providence, which destined him for another martyrdom, he escaped the plague and the exhaustion. In 1636, he resigned from his duties as superior and obtained permission to devote himself entirely to the missions. For twenty-one years, he was found on all the roads of Lithuania, which he evangelized. The Cossacks, the Russians, and the Tartars were already ravaging Poland, which was destined for a martyrdom that, even today, has not yet reached its end. The Jesuits suffered greatly from the invaders who did not like them: they saw themselves stripped of their possessions, driven from their homes, and taken into captivity. The people had to endure atrocious miseries: they had Father Andrew Bobola to support and help them, who at the same time fought error wherever he encountered it. His knowledge did such harm to the Greek priests and so diminished the number of their followers that they resolved to unite their forces in a corner of Lithuania and make it, so to speak, their citadel. They chose the province of Polesie, which is surrounded everywhere by lakes and marshes; but they encountered there a formidable adversary, Prince Rad ziwill, a ferve prince Radziwil Catholic protector who invited the Jesuits to Pinsk. nt Catholic, who called the Jesuits to his aid by offering them a princely house in Pinsk. Father Andrew Bobola went there with the conviction that he was going to his martyrdom.

He became, in effect, the object of all the attacks of the schismatics who feared him.

How many outrages he had already received! How many times already had sacrilegious hands

16 MAL.

dared to rise against him! The priests of the schism paid wretches to overwhelm him with blows and insults. However, they devised another persecution that was to go deeper into the heart of the apostle; they gathered the coarsest and most wicked schismatic children and sent them to the door of the college. There, when the missionary appeared to leave, the most insulting clamors immediately resounded, and the most shameful projectiles flew at him. Yet he moved forward; but these children followed him. They waited for him in front of the house of the poor and the sick whom his charity visited, and then brought him back amidst the jeers of their infamous games. And this lasted for several years; almost every day it was the same scene. The man of God never retreated; he never omitted, he never even delayed his apostolic journeys in order to avoid this abominable concert of outrages. What am I saying? For this great heart, eager for the humiliations of Calvary, it was like a perpetual ovation. Not only did he betray no trouble, no emotion of nature, but goodness, peace, and supernatural joy illuminated his face.

"Jesuit dog, papist dog!" these little executioners would cry; "Lach, Lach! Pole, Pole! Catholic priest! Dutzochwat!" they would cry again; "Soul-snatcher! Soul-snatcher!" Yes, that was indeed the title that the triumphant zeal of Andrew de served. His enemie ravisseur des âmes Polish Jesuit priest, missionary, and martyr. s themselves thus published his glory in their own way, and we do not know if it is not even more glorious for him to have been named the soul-snatcher by the schismatics than to have been proclaimed by the Catholics the apostle of Pinsk. However, his persecutors, by shouting Dutzochwat, intended to do him the cruelest injury; they compared him to the demon himself, as they had previously done to the Blessed Josaphat, that martyr bishop of Vitebsk, whom they represented armed with a hook and dragging souls into hell, an bienheureux Josaphat Archbishop of Polotsk and martyr for the Union of the Churches. d also called Dutzochwat. "Ah! Would to God," replied Josaphat, "that I could indeed snatch your souls and lead them to paradise."

Such was also the cry of the Blessed Andrew. How he would have liked to win these poor children to God! Sometimes he would lead them in his footsteps to solitary places, and casting upon them that look of paternal benignity, which children usually cannot resist—they who once approached the Savior Jesus with such touching familiarity—he would try to speak to them. But the lesson had been taught to them. Their parents and their priests had warned them against the seductive sweetness of Andrew. "Sorcerer! Sorcerer!" they would cry, and plugging their ears, they would flee in terror. How the saddened face of the apostle must have then ardently breathed that deep charity, that tender affection for childhood that he had drawn from the heart of the good Master! What touching efforts he made to retain these cherished executioners! Ah! Without a doubt, this generous soul-snatcher had then more than once the happiness of snatching from the demon some of these victims to return them to his God.

His enemies, seeing that they were gaining nothing and that the conduct of Andrew Bobola served his cause instead of ruining it, resolved to get rid of him; they called the Cossacks to their aid. Two band leaders set out in pursuit of the Blessed one. One day, just after he had said Mass and was making his thanksgiving, he was warned that the Cossacks were arriving: he was provided with the means to flee, but he was soon overtaken and captured by his enemies, who stripped him, tied him to a tree, and overwhelmed him with blows; they then put a rope around his neck and tied him behind their horses, leading him to their leader in Janow. The calm answers that the martyr gave to these barbarians irritated them, and he received as punishment a great blow from a saber to the head. The hand he had instinctively raised in the air was almost detached from his arm, but it saved him from certain death. Then the soldiers joined in. One tore out his eye, the others took him to a butcher where they lit torches and burned different parts of his body, asking him to renounce his faith. Upon his refusal, he was half-strangled with young green branches twisted in advance, they gave him a tonsure by removing the skin from his head, and they struck him in the face so as to break his teeth; under the horrible and mocking pretext of making him a chasuble, they tore the skin from his back. They wiped the blood flowing in torrents from this atrocious wound with a straw torch, and to finish making a monster of this man whose appearance terrified even his executioners, they drove reeds under his fingernails to give them the appearance of claws. After then cutting off his nose and lips, they threw him onto a pile of manure. The Blessed one was nothing more than a mass of shapeless and repulsive flesh. Two hours later, the captain, passing by, finished him off with a blow from a saber. (May 16, 1657).

Immediately after the martyr's death, a brilliant light appeared over Janów and terrified the Cossacks, who mounted their horses and disappeared. The Catholics transported his corpse to the Jesuit college in Pinsk, where it was buried. The news of this horrific death spread rapidly, and the Poles began from then on to invoke Bobola as a Saint. Forty-five years after his death, his body was found without corruption: this news revived the confidence of the Poles, and Bobola's tomb became a place of pilgrimage where numerous miracles occurred. Several times during the course of the 18th century, his sepulcher was opened and the body was always found in a perfect state of preservation. In 1808, it was transported to Polotsk to the college of the Society of Jesus. But, in 1820, the Jesuits were driven out of Russia by a decree of Alexander, or rather by a decree of God: they were sent once again to all points of the world for the apostolate. They did not have the consolation of taking the sacred deposit with them: they entrusted it to the piety of the religious of Saint Dominic. But, since then, the schismatics have taken possession of it. However, it is a justice to render them: in Polotsk, as formerly in Pinsk, they themselves honor the remains of him whom the schism struck; a touching reparation, which no doubt brings down upon them as well many graces, through the intercession of him who evangelized them for so long, who shed his blood for them while forgiving them.

The Blessed was of a stout build and short stature; but in his whole exterior he bore something noble, simple, and pious that disposed one in his favor. Fatigue had early on stripped his forehead; he was left with only a crown of blond hair that whitened before his time; he kept a fairly long beard. The liveliness of his gaze was nothing compared to his modesty. On his slightly flushed face, majesty and candor met. People loved to see him; they loved to hear him. He possessed, along with an excellent mind, a happy memory and an always easy expression. His pronunciation was pleasant; his voice sonorous and penetrating. He applied himself to giving solid instruction; but at the same time, his insinuating sweetness reached hearts; his deep conviction touched them by vibrating within them. Sometimes his speech would strike like lightning, and the most hardened sinners could no longer resist.

It was Pius IX who, in 1853, beatified Andrew Bobola.

Historical notice Pie IX Pope who canonized Josaphat in 1867. on the Blessed Andrew Bobola of the Society of Jesus, by the Rev. Fr. Ollsaint. Paris, Julien, Lanier and Co., publishers, 1854, and all modern hagiographers.