It's the Feast of
St. Hyacinth,
3rd Class, with the color of
White. In this episode: the meditation: "The Good Samaritan", today's news from the Church: "Bishop Strickland: "We must find the courage to speak of modernism as a living danger."", a preview of the Sermon: "The Greatest Privilege in Life", and today's thought from the Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre.
Have feedback or questions about the DD or our other shows?
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Sources Used Today:
- "The Good Samaritan" — From Trinity Sunday to the Assumption
- "Bishop Strickland: "We must find the courage to speak of modernism as a living danger."" (FSSPX.news)
- "The Greatest Privilege in Life" (SSPX Sermons)
- The Spiritual Life — Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre (Angelus Press)
Please support our new project, the Archbishop Lefebvre Biography Audiobook:
Saint Hyacinth is sometimes called the "Apostle of Poland," but that title almost undersells him. He was one of the great traveling missionaries of the thirteenth century, helping carry the newly founded Dominican Order across Poland, Prussia, Lithuania, and into the lands of Kievan Rus'.
He was born around 1185 into a noble Polish family and received an excellent education. His life changed during a trip to Rome, where he encountered Dominic and saw the new Order of Preachers firsthand.
Hyacinth joined almost immediately.
Dominic personally gave him the Dominican habit and then sent him back north.
That was quite an assignment.
The Dominicans barely existed yet, and Hyacinth was essentially being asked to build the order as he traveled. He preached, established priories, trained friars, and kept moving. Tradition places his missionary journeys across an enormous portion of Eastern Europe.
But the story everyone remembers about Hyacinth involves a burning monastery and a statue of Our Lady.
According to tradition, Hyacinth was celebrating Mass in Kiev when invading forces entered the city. He grabbed the ciborium containing the Blessed Sacrament and began fleeing the church.
Then he heard a voice.
"Hyacinth, are you going to leave me behind?"
The voice seemed to come from a heavy stone statue of the Blessed Virgin.
Hyacinth reportedly answered that the statue was far too heavy for him to carry.
Our Lady told him to pick it up anyway.
So Hyacinth took the ciborium in one hand, lifted the statue with the other, and carried both to safety. In some versions of the story, he and his companions then crossed the Dnieper River miraculously, walking across the water or using his cloak as a raft.
That's why religious art often makes Hyacinth very easy to identify. If you see a Dominican holding a monstrance or ciborium in one hand and a statue of Mary in the other, you've probably found Saint Hyacinth.
There's another unusual legacy attached to him.
In parts of Poland, Hyacinth became associated with pierogi. A traditional Polish invocation, "Saint Hyacinth with pierogi!" recalls stories that he fed people during famine or after crops were destroyed by storms. Whether Hyacinth actually served medieval pierogi is impossible to establish, but it's hard not to love a saint who became associated with both Eucharistic devotion and dumplings.
Hyacinth died in Kraków in 1257. His tomb remains in the Dominican church there, where pilgrims have honored him for centuries.
His life left an enormous footprint. He entered an order that was barely beginning and helped plant it across a huge section of Europe.
Saint Hyacinth, Apostle of Poland, protector of the Eucharist, and devoted son of Our Lady, pray for us.
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