St. Hyacinth

The Saint of the Day for August 17 is St. Hyacinth


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 , becomng a Doctor of Law and Divinity before travelling 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 at Sandomir, Cracow, 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, 1257

Some of his relics can be found at the Dominican church in Paris.

St. Hyacinth is a patron of Poland.