Saint of the Day

Blessed Ralph Corby was born to a devout Irish Catholic family in Maynooth, Ireland, on March 25, 1598. All of Blessed Ralph's family took religious vows, including his parents who decided to do so after their children had all joined various orders. Ralph's father became a Jesuit lay brother and his mother a Benedictine nun.Ralph joined the Jesuits, along with his two brothers and volunteered for the perilous mission to minister in England at a time when it was illegal to be a Catholic priest.He ministered covertly in the north of England, near Durham, for 12 years before he was discovered and subsequently sentenced to death.Blessed Ralph was hanged, drawn, and quartered on September 7, 1644 at Tyburn, England.  He was beatified by Pope Pius IX in 1929.

Born to nobility and educated by the Jesuits of the Arima province around 1571, Thomas entered the Jesuit order on the completion of his schooling at around 17 years old. He quickly developed a reputation for excellent preaching and evangelical zeal.   He was exiled to the island of Macao during a persecution of Christians, yet he managed to return to Japan in disguise and continue his priestly ministry.   He was recaptured and sentenced to death, yet he refused to seek his freedom through his family’s political connections.   He was burned to death at the stake in 1627 in Nagasaki, Japan.  He was beatified by Pope Pius IX in 1867.

Known to all as a universal symbol of God's merciful and preferential love for the poor and forgotten, Mother Teresa was born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu on August 26, 1910, in Skopje, Macedonia, the youngest of three children. She attended a youth group called Sodality, run by a Jesuit priest at her parish, and her involvement opened her to the call of service as a missionary nun.   She joined the Sisters of Loretto at age 17 and was sent to Calcutta where she taught at a high school. She contracted Tuberculosis and was sent to rest in Darjeeling. It was on the train to Darjeeling that she received her calling - what she called "an order" from God to leave the convent and work and live among the poor.  At this point she did not know that she was to found an order of nuns, or even exactly where she was to serve. "I knew where I belonged, but I did not know how to get there," she said once, recalling the moment on the train.   Confirmation of the calling came when the Vatican granted her permission to leave the Sisters of Loretto and fulfill her calling under the Archbishop of Calcutta. She started working in the slums, teaching poor children, and treating the sick in their homes. She was joined a year later by some of her former students and together they took in men, women, and children who were dying in the gutters along the streets and cared for them.   In 1950 the Missionaries of Charity were born as a congregation of the Diocese of Calcutta and in 1952 the government granted them a house from which to continue their service among Calcutta's forgotten.   The congregation very quickly grew from a single house for the dying and unwanted to nearly 500 around the world.  Mother Teresa set up homes for AIDS sufferers, for prostitutes, for battered women, and orphanages for poor children.   She often said that the poorest of the poor were those who had no one to care for them and no one who knew them. And she often remarked with sadness and desolation of millions of souls in the developed world whose spiritual poverty and loneliness was such an immense cause of suffering.   She was a fierce defender of the unborn saying: "If you hear of some woman who does not want to keep her child and wants to have an abortion, try to persuade her to bring him to me. I will love that child, seeing in him the sign of God's love."   Blessed Teresa also spoke of sacrifice saying: "A sacrifice to be real must cost, must hurt, must empty ourselves. The fruit of silence is prayer, the fruit of prayer is faith, the fruit of faith is love, the fruit of love is service, the fruit of service is peace." She also said, "give yourself fully to God. He will use you to accomplish great things on the condition that you believe much more in His love than in your own weakness."    Mother Teresa died on September 5, 1997 and was beatified only six years later, on October 19, 2003.

Though few details are known of Boniface's early life, he was elected Pope on December 28, 418. He is believed to have been ordained a priest by Pope Damasus I (366-384) and to have served as representative of Innocent I at Constantinople (c. 405). Boniface was highly esteemed for his charitable and learned personality which he placed in the service of his priestly duties.At the death of Pope Zosimus in 418, two Popes were elected, Boniface and Eulalius. They were sent away from Rome by the emperor until the difficulty would be cleared. Eulalius failed to respect the Emperor's decree and thus Boniface was recognized as the legitimate Pope.Boniface's reign was marked by great zeal and activity in disciplinary organization and control. He worked to reform certain corrupt practices and reduced the privileges granted to certain bishops.He ardently supported St. Augustine in his fight against Pelagianism and Augustine devoted several works to him.   Pope Saint Boniface died in Rome, September 4, 422.

"If we knew at what time we were to depart from this world, we would be able to select a season for pleasure and another for repentance. But God, who has promised pardon to every repentant sinner, has not promised us tomorrow. Therefore we must always dread the final day, which we can never foresee. This very day is a day of truce, a day for conversion." - St. Gregory the Great Gregory was born in Rome around 540, into the family of a wealthy Roman Senator who converted and became one of the seven deacons of Rome. Gregory, who was known for his intelligence and capacity for work, was appointed Prefect of Rome by the emperor at the very young age of 34. However, a year later, on the death of his father, Gregory became a Benedictine monk, and founded seven monasteries, one in his own home in Rome.His monastic life was interrupted, much to his regret, in 590 when he was elected Pope by all the clergy and faithful of Rome and carried to his consecration at St. Peter's on September 3.His achievements in his 14 years as Pope are almost astounding. His biographer, Paul the Deacon, explaining his phenomenal work output, said that he never rested. All the more remarkable when one considers that he was always in ill health, physical suffering being a constant companion throughout his entire reign as pope.He introduced liturgical reforms and brought chant into the Church, now known as Gregorian chant, after him. He sent Saint Augustine of Canterbury and a company of monks to evangelize England, and wrote many works on faith and moral subjects.Saint Gregory's influence on the future shape of Catholicism should never be underestimated. His reforms and organization of the Church's relationships with the temporal order set the tone for succeeding centuries.Most significantly, he became the model of the medieval Pope. With regard to things spiritual, he impressed upon men's minds, to a degree unprecedented, the fact that the See of Peter was the one, supreme, decisive authority in the Catholic Church.He is one of the four great Latin doctors of the Church, one of only two Popes to be called 'great' (the other being Pope Saint Leo the Great) and the patron saint of music.   Pope Saint Gregory the Great once said, "The proof of love is in the works. Where love exists, it works great things. But when it ceases to act, it ceases to exist."   Saint Gregory died on March 12, 604.

The September Martyrs are a group of 191 faithful Christians who were martyred at the hands of the French Revolution on September 2 and 3, 1792. After refusing to take an oath in support of the civil consititution of the clergy, an act condemned by the Vatican which placed Catholic priests under the authority and control of the state, these priests and religious brothers and sisters were imprisoned in a Carmelite convent and then massacred in the space of two days by bloodthirsty revolutionary mobs.They were beatified on October 17, 1926 by Pope Pius XI.   Among the martyrs were Louis and Francis de la Rochefoucauld, the bishops of Saintes and Beauvais respectively; Apollinaris of Posat; John Francis Burte; Charles de la Calmette; Augustine Ambrose Chevreux; Andre Grasset de Saint Sauveur; John Mary de Lau; Severin Girault; Julian Massey; and Louis Barreau de la Touche.

St. Beatrice was born to Portuguese nobility in Cuerta, Portugal, in 1424.  She was the daughter of the Count of Viana, and the sister of Saint Amadeus of Portugal. She was raised in the household of the future Queen Isabel of Portugal and spent some time in her royal court in Castile following the Queen's marriage to John II. She soon got tired of the empty life at court and joined a Cistercian convent in Toledo.  She lived at the convent until 1484, when she answered a summons from God to found a religious order. The Congregation of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary was begun, and with the help of the Queen, she founded a house outside of Toledo where she lived and served as superior until her death  on September 1, 1490. Saint Beatrice was canonized in 1976 by Pope Paul VI.

Raymond became a priest due to his quiet persistence in prayer and study.   He was born to a noble Spanish family in 1204. His mother died during child birth and his father had high expectations for Raymond to serve in the country’s Royal Court.  However, the young Raymond felt drawn to religious life. In an attempt to dissuade him, his father ordered him to manage one of the family farms. However, Raymond spent his time with the workers, studying, and praying. His father finally gave up and allowed Raymond to enter the Mercederians.   Fr. Raymond spent his entire estate ransoming slaves. He even offered himself as a hostage to free another. He was sentenced to death but was spared because his ransom would bring in a large amount of money.   During his imprisonment, he succeeded at converting some of his guards. To keep him from continuing his preaching, his captors bored a hole through his lips with a hot iron, and attached a padlock. He was eventually ransomed, and he returned to Barcelona in 1239.   That year, he was named a cardinal by Pope Gregory IX.  The following year, in 1240, he was summoned to Rome, but barely made it out of Barcelona before he died at the age of 36.   St. Raymond is the patron saint of pregnant women, childbirth, and newborn infants.

Jeanne Jugan, Foundress of the Little Sisters of the Poor Three years after the French revolution had broken out, a baby girl was born whose name is known today all over the world. Jeanne Jugan was born on October 25, 1792 in Cancale, a fishing port on the north coast of Brittany, France. Her father was absent at the time, for he sailed six months earlier for the fishing season in Newfoundland. According to parish registers of Cancale, she was baptized the same day in Saint Méen Church. Less than four years later, Jeanne’s father was lost at sea.  At home, it was hard to make both ends meet. Jeanne, her brother and two sisters learned from their mother how to live poverty honestly and courageously with faith and love in God. A servant and kitchen maid in a manor near Cancale, Jeanne was 18 when she refused a first marriage proposal. Six years later, she asked the young sailor who renewed his request to no longer think of her. “God wants me for Himself. He is keeping me for a work which is not yet known, for a work which is not yet founded,” she explained to her mother. Jeanne probably did not realize the impact of these prophetic words. Many years were to pass before this call became clear to her. In the meantime, she left Cancale for the nearby town of Saint Servan. A nurse at Le Rosais Hospital, a visiting nurse, then a servant, she desired only to serve God and others, especially the poor. She was in this way faithful to the ideal of configuration to Jesus through Mary - that Saint John Eudes taught to members of the Third Order of the Admirable Mother, an association founded in the 17th century which she joined around the age of twenty-five. Saint Servan, 1839 One winter’s evening, Jeanne opened her home and heart to an elderly woman named Anne Chauvin. Anne was half paralyzed, blind, and had suddenly found herself all alone. Jeanne gave up her bed for Anne, and slept in the attic. This act committed her forever. Soon another old woman followed, then a third. In 1843, there were forty of them around Jeanne and her three young companions, who had chosen her as the Superior of their small Association which was slowly taking the form of a religious community. However, it was not long before Jeanne was deprived of this responsibility. Through her faith and love, she discovered in this turn of events God’s plan for herself and for her religious family. Jeanne then spent all her time collecting for the poor.  She had witnessed this act of charity and of sharing as a child in Cancale, when a sailors' widow was in need. Jeanne was encouraged to continue collecting by a Brother of Saint John of God. Time of Hidden Growth, 1862-1879 As the years passed by, Jeanne Jugan was buried more deeply in obscurity. The history of the beginning of her work was distorted. When she died on August 29, 1879, in La Tour St. Joseph, few Little Sisters knew that she was the foundress. However, her influence on the younger Little Sisters, whose life she had shared for twenty-seven years, was decisive. During this long period, she transmitted to them the original charism and spirit of the community. Little by little the situation became clear. In 1902, the truth became evident. Jeanne Jugan, Sister Mary of the Cross, who died on oblivion a quarter of century earlier, was not the third Little Sister, as it was believed, but the first, the foundress. Her tomb, in the crypt of the chapel of the Motherhouse, in La Tour St. Joseph (Saint Pern), attracts many pilgrims, as do her birthplace in the hamlet of Les Petites Croix, in Cancale, and the foundation’s house in Saint Servan. Recognition On July 13, 1979, the Church officially acknowledged the heroic nature of Jeanne Jugan’s virtues. On October 3, 1982, at her beatification in the presence of 60,000 pilgrims from all over the world, Pope John Paul II declared of “Blessed Jeanne Jugan” that "God could glorify no more humble a servant than her."  Her example continues to inspire the Little Sisters of the Poor today as they continue her work of humble service to the poor.She was beatified on October 11, 2009 by Pope Benedict XVI.Printed with permission from the Little Sisters of the Poor.

On this day, the universal Church marks the beheading of John the Baptist, who prepared the way for Jesus. As an adult, he lived as a hermit in the wilderness. After the Spirit inspired him, he went about preaching that people should repent for their sins and be baptized to prepare for the Messiah. Herod imprisoned John because John had condemned Herod for committing adultery by living with his brother's wife, Herodias. The daughter of Herodias danced for Herod on his birthday. Herod was so impressed that he said he would offer her anything she liked. She consulted with Herodias who told her to ask for the head of John the Baptist on a platter. And so John was beheaded.

Augustine was born at the town of Tagaste ( now Souk-Ahras, in modern day Algeria) on 13 November, 354. He grew to become one the most significant and influential thinkers in the history of the Catholic Church, and his teachings were the foundation of Christian doctrine for a millennium.The story of his life, up until his conversion, is written in the autobiographical Confessions, the most intimate and well known glimpse into an individual's soul ever written, as well as a fascinating philosophical, theological, mystical, poetic and literary work.He was the first son of Saint Monica and a pagan father named Patricius, who was baptized just before his death, leaving his mother the widow whose tears and prayers for the conversion of her wayward son are known to us through the Confessions.Augustine, though being brought up in early childhood as a Christian, delayed being baptized, lived a dissolute life of revelry and sin, and soon drifted away from the Church - thinking that he wasn't necessarily leaving Christ, of whose name he acknowledges "I kept it in the recesses of my heart; and all that presented itself to me without that Divine name, though it might be elegant, well written, and even replete with truth, did not altogether carry me away" (Confessions, I, iv).He went to study in Carthage and became well known in the city for his brilliant mind and rhetorical skills and sought a career as an orator or lawyer. But he also discovered and fell in love with philosophy at the age of 19, a love he pursued with great vehemence.He was attracted to Manichaeanism at this time, after its devotees had promised him that they had scientific answers to the mystery of nature, could disprove the Scriptures, and could explain the problem of evil. Augustine became a follower for nine years, learning all there was to learn in it before rejecting it as incoherent and fraudulent.He went to Rome and then Milan in 386 where he met Saint Ambrose, the bishop and Doctor of the Church, whose sermons inspired him to look for the truth he had always sought in the faith he had rejected. He received baptism and soon after, his mother, Saint Monica, died with the knowledge that all she had hoped for in this world had been fulfilled.He returned to Africa, to his hometown of Tagaste, "having now cast off from himself the cares of the world, he lived for God with those who accompanied him, in fasting, prayers, and good works, meditating on the law of the Lord by day and by night."On a visit to Hippo he was proclaimed priest and then bishop against his will. He accepted it as the will of God and spent the rest of his life as the pastor of this north African town, from where he spent much time refuting the writings of heretics.  Augustine also wrote, The City of God, against the pagans who charged that the fall of the Roman empire, which was taking place at the hands of the Vandals.On August 28, 430, as Hippo was under siege by the Vandals, Augustine died, at the age of 76. His legacy continues to deeply shape the face of the Church to this day.

St. Monica was born of Christian parents at Tagaste, North Africa, in 333. Probably the second most famous mother of all, after the Mother of God, Monica's life can never be separated from that of her son, the great Saint Augustine, convert, bishop, and doctor of the Church. What we know of her for the most part is the account that Augustine gives of her in his Confessions.We are told but little of her childhood. She was married early in life to Patritius who held an official position in Tagaste. He was a pagan, though like so many at that period, his religion was no more than a name; his temper was violent and he appears to have been of dissolute habits. Consequently Monica's married life was far from being a happy one, more especially as Patritius's mother seems to have been of a similar disposition. There was, of course, a gulf between husband and wife; her almsgiving and her habits of prayer annoyed him, but it is said that he always held her in a sort of reverence. Monica was not the only matron of Tagaste whose married life was unhappy, but, by her sweetness and patience, she was able to exercise a veritable apostolate amongst the wives and mothers of her native town; they knew that she suffered as they did, and her words and example had a proportionate effect. Monica had three children, Augustine the eldest, Navigius the second, and a daughter, Perpetua. Monica had been unable to secure baptism for her children, and was greatly grieved when Augustine fell ill; in her distress she besought Patritius to allow him to be baptized; he agreed, but on the boy's recovery withdrew his consent.All Monica's anxiety now centered on Augustine; he was wayward and, as he himself tells us, lazy. He was sent to Madaura to school and Monica seems to have literally wrestled with God for the soul of her son. Monica did receive a great consolation during this time as her husband, Patritius, became a Christian shortly before dying. At Carthage, where Augustine had now gone to study, he had become a Manichean, news which caused Monica to kick him out of her house. She went tearfully to the bishop to ask him to help and he responded famously "the child of those tears shall never perish." Augustine left to Rome undercover of night in order not to hurt his mother, but she followed him all the way to Rome where she met Saint Ambrose and was able to see the conversion and baptism of her son after 17 years of tears and prayer. Monica died at Ostia in 387, on the way back to Africa with Augustine. The most moving the pages of his Confessions were written as the result of the emotion Augustine experienced at the parting of his mother.  

Born July 1773 at La Blanc, France; 26 August, 1838; canonized 1947 by Pope Pius XII. Born to nobility, and educated in a convent school, Jeanne Elizabeth witnessed closely and was personally affected by the events of the French Revolution which rocked France when she was 16 years old. On her father’s death she moved to La Guimetiere with her mother, and in 1796, realizing that she needed to do something to defend the Church and keep the faith alive amidst the attacks of the revolutionaries, she decided to begin a ministry of teaching and serving the poor. She gathered groups of faithful in the town – which was at this point without a priest or community of religious – and organized meetings of prayer and Scripture study. The town still suffered the effects of the French Revolution; it didn't even have a priest, much less religious communities. Jeanne Elizabeth gathered the remaining faithful together to pray, read Scripture, and sing hymns. She entered a Carmelite convent on her mother’s death in 1804 and later the Society of Providence, on the advice of Saint Andrew Fournet, an underground priest who was forced to remain clandestine because he refused to make a pledge of allegiance to the government of the new republic. He realized that she was the one God had called to lead a community of women he had gathered, and she cofounded the Daughters of the Cross with him in 1807 to care for the sick and poor and teach the faith. By the time of her death in 1838, the community had more than 60 houses all over France.

St. Louis was born to King Louis VIII and Blanche of Castile, at Poissy, April 25th 1215.  died near Tunis, 25 August, 1270. Louis was made King at only 11years of age and was the father of 11 children,  St. Louis of France led an exemplary life, bearing constantly in mind his mother's words: "I would rather see you dead at my feet than guilty of a mortal sin." His biographers have written of long hours he spent in prayer, fasting, and penance, without the knowlege of his people. The French king was a great lover of justice, who took great measures to ensure that the process of arbitration was carried out properly. All of 13th century Christian Europe willingly looked upon him as an international judge. He was renowned for his charity. "The peace and blessings of the realm come to us through the poor," he would say. Beggars were fed from his table, he ate their leavings, washed their feet, ministered to the wants of the lepers, and daily fed over one hundred poor. He founded many hospitals and houses: the House of the Felles-Dieu for reformed prostitutes; the Quinze-Vingt for 300 blind men (1254),  as well as hospitals at Pontoise, Vernon, Compiégne. St. Louis was a patron of architecture. The Sainte Chappelle, an architectural gem, was constructed in his reign as a reliquary for the Crown of Thorns, and it was under his patronage that Robert of Sorbonne founded the "Collège de la Sorbonne," which became the seat of the theological faculty of Paris, the most illustrious seat of learning in the medieval period. St. Louis died of the plague near Tunis, August 25th, 1270, during the Second Crusade.  He is the patron of masons and builders.

Rose is the first saint of the New World. Rose was born to Spanish parents in Lima, Peru, in 1586. At a very young age, she chose to consecrate her life to God. She practiced prayer and penance daily, sometimes depriving herself of food and sleep. She joined the Third Order of St. Dominic and lived in a little hut in her parents' garden, working to help support them. She was ill for the last three years of her life and was cared for by a government official and his wife. She died at the age of 31 in 1617 and was canonized in 1671.

In this feast, particularly cherished by the Popes of modern times, we celebrate Mary as the Queen of Heaven and Earth. Pope Pius XII in the Papal Encyclical Ad Coeli Reginam proposed the traditional doctrine on the Queenship of Mary and established this feast for the Universal Church. Pope Pius IX said of Mary's queenship: "Turning her maternal Heart toward us and dealing with the affair of our salvation, she is concerned with the whole human race. Constituted by the Lord Queen of Heaven and earth, and exalted above all choirs of Angels and the ranks of Saints in Heaven, standing at the right hand of Her only-begotten Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, she petitions most powerfully with Her maternal prayers, and she obtains what she seeks." And Pope Pius XII added the following: "We commend that on the festival there be renewed the consecration of the human race to the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Upon this there is founded a great hope that there will rejoice in the triumph of religion and in Christian peace... ...Therefore, let all approach with greater confidence now than before, to the throne of mercy and grace of our Queen and Mother to beg help in difficultly, light in darkness and solace in trouble and sorrow... . . Whoever, therefore, honours the lady ruler of the Angels and of men - and let no one think themselves exempt from the payment of that tribute of a grateful and loving soul - let them call upon her as most truly Queen and as the Queen who brings the blessings of peace, that She may show us all, after this exile, Jesus, who will be our enduringpeace and joy."

Pope Pius X, born Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto, was the first Pope elected in the 20th century. He came to the papal office in 1903 and died 11 years later in 1914, just as World War I was beginning. He was born in 1835 at Riese, near Venice, and was one of eight children. His family was poor. He felt a calling to be a priest at a young age and was ordained in 1858. After 26 years, he was named bishop of Mantua, Italy, and in 1893, he became patriarch of Venice. As Pope, he issued decrees making the age of First Holy Communion earlier (at the age of 7) and advocated frequent and even daily reception of the Eucharist. He promoted the reading of the Bible among laypeople, reformed the liturgy, promoted clear and simple homilies, and brought back Gregorian chant. He revised the Breviary, reorganized the curia, and initiated the codification of canon law. He died in 1914 of natural causes reportedly aggravated by worries over the beginning of World War I. Pope Pius X was canonized by Pope Pius XII in 1954.

St. Bernard is a Doctor of the Church thanks to his writings and sermons which greatly influenced Europe during the 12th century, and his efforts which helped to avoid a schism in the Church in 1130. Bernard left his privileged life near Dijon, France, to join the Cistercians at the age of 22. He was well educated and so passionate about his faith that he convinced his brothers, his uncle, and many of his friends to join him at the abbey. Bernard first entered the abbey at Citeaux, but only three years later was sent with 12 other monks to establish another monastery in the Diocese of Champagne. The monastery came to be known Clairvaux (Valley of Light). He led the other monks there as the abbot for the rest of his life. He became widely known throughout Europe and was consulted by popes and political leaders. He died in 1153 and was canonized less than three decades later in 1174.

St. John Eudes was a French missionary and the founder of the Congregation of Our Lady of Charity; St John was also the author of the liturgical worship of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary.  St. John was born at Ri, France on November 14th, 1601.  At the age of fourteen he took a vow of chastity and since the time he was a child he tried to live in imitation of the Lord Jesus. When he was ordained a priest in 1625, at the age of 24, he was immmediately thrust into the service of victims of the plague whom he cared for at great risk to his life. He also began preaching missions and was known as the greatest preacher of his age, preaching missions all over France, especially throughout Normandy.In 1641 he founded the Congregation of Our Lady of Charity of the Refuge, to provide a refuge for prostitutes.  In 1643 he founded the Society of Jesus and Mary for the education of priests and for missionary work.He was also instrumental in encouraging devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Holy Heart of Mary, writing the first book ever on the devotion to the Sacred Hearts, "Le Coeur Admirable de la Très Sainte Mère de Dieu".He died at Caen, on August 19th, 1680.His virtues were declared heroic by Leo XIII, on January 6th, 1903. The miracles proposed for his beatification were approved by Pius X, May 3rd, 1908, and he was beatified April 25th, 1909.  He was canonized in 1925.

One of the first members of the Dominicans (the Order of Preachers) and the "apostle of the North", also called the "apostle of Poland."Hyacinth was born into nobility in 1185 at the castle of Lanka, at Kamin, in Silesia, Poland, and received an impressive education , becoming a Doctor of Law and Divinity before traveling to Rome with his uncle, Ivo Konski, the Bishop of Krakow. In Rome he met St. Dominic and decided to join the Order of Preachers immediately, receiving his habit from Dominic himself in 1220.After his novitiate he made his religious profession, and was made superior of the little band of missionaries sent to Poland to preach. In Poland the new preachers were favourably received and their sermons were productive of much good. Hyacinth also founded communities in Sandomir, Kracow, and at Plocko on the Vistula in Moravia. He extended his missionary work through Prussia, Pomerania, and Lithuania; then crossing the Baltic Sea he preached in Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Russia, reaching the shores of the Black Sea.On his return to Krakow he died, on August 15, 1257Some of his relics can be found at the Dominican church in Paris.St. Hyacinth is a patron of Poland.