Catholic saint and martyr. Jan Sarkander lived during a very turbulent time in history, in which European Protestants and Catholics were often at war. Sarkander had studied philosophy in Prague. He was married, but his wife, Anna Platska Sarkander, died the next year; the couple had no children. Sarkander went on to study theology, and was ordained a priest in Holleschau, Moravia, in the diocese of Olmutz. He converted several hundred Protestants, which enraged a nearby anti-Catholic landowner named Bitowski von Bystritz, who would eventually betray him. During a period of factional warring in which Protestants were gaining control of Moravia, there was a united effort between Poles and Cossack troops to aid in the fight against Protestantism. Although the Cossacks did not invade Holleschau after meeting with Sarkander, Bitowski von Bystritz turned Sarkander in as a suspected Polish spy, which he was not. Sarkander was then ordered to reveal the private confessions of the Baron of Moravia, but he would not violate the privacy and sanctity of the confessional. Because of his refusal to reveal the secrets of the confessional, and also because of the false charge of aiding the Poles, Sarkander was sent to a dungeon in Olmutz. He was tortured on the rack and then slowly burned, dying of his injuries on March 17, 1620. He became known as "The Martyr of the Confessional", and is revered in Eastern Europe. He was beatified by Pope Pius IX in 1860, and was canonized as a Roman Catholic saint by Pope John Paul II in 1995.
Catholic saint and martyr. Jan Sarkander lived during a very turbulent time in history, in which European Protestants and Catholics were often at war. Sarkander had studied philosophy in Prague. He was married, but his wife, Anna Platska Sarkander, died the next year; the couple had no children. Sarkander went on to study theology, and was ordained a priest in Holleschau, Moravia, in the diocese of Olmutz. He converted several hundred Protestants, which enraged a nearby anti-Catholic landowner named Bitowski von Bystritz, who would eventually betray him. During a period of factional warring in which Protestants were gaining control of Moravia, there was a united effort between Poles and Cossack troops to aid in the fight against Protestantism. Although the Cossacks did not invade Holleschau after meeting with Sarkander, Bitowski von Bystritz turned Sarkander in as a suspected Polish spy, which he was not. Sarkander was then ordered to reveal the private confessions of the Baron of Moravia, but he would not violate the privacy and sanctity of the confessional. Because of his refusal to reveal the secrets of the confessional, and also because of the false charge of aiding the Poles, Sarkander was sent to a dungeon in Olmutz. He was tortured on the rack and then slowly burned, dying of his injuries on March 17, 1620. He became known as "The Martyr of the Confessional", and is revered in Eastern Europe. He was beatified by Pope Pius IX in 1860, and was canonized as a Roman Catholic saint by Pope John Paul II in 1995.
Bio by: pacifica
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