Saint John Sarkander

Jan Sarkander (Czech and Polish: Jan Sarkander) (20 December 1576 – 17 March 1620) was a Polish-Czech Roman Catholic priest. Sarkander was married for a short period of time before he became widowed and pursued a path to the priesthood where he became active in defence of Catholicism during a period of anti-Catholic sentiment and conflict. He himself was arrested on false accusations as a means of silencing him and he refused to give in to his tormenters who tortured him for around a month before he died. Pope Pius IX beatified Sarkander at Saint Peter's Basilica in 1860 and Pope John Paul II canonized him as a saint in 1995 on his visit to the Czech Republic. Jan Sarkander was born on 20 December 1576 in Skoczów, Lands of Bohemian Crown (now in Poland) into a Silesian household as the son of Georg Mathias Sarkander and Helena Górecka. He had one sister and three other brothers: Nicholas (a priest himself), Paul, and Wenceslas. His father died in 1589 and so his family moved to Příbor. His mother remarried and gave birth to his half-brother Matthew. Sarkander intended to become a priest but dropped the idea and instead married. He and his wife then settled in Brno. The marriage was short-lived for his wife died one year later. There were no children. He then took up studies for the priesthood, convinced that God was calling him. Sarkander studied at the Olomouc college from 1597 until 1600 due to the plague which forced him to transfer to the Charles University in Prague. He obtained his degree of master of philosophy at Prague in 1603. He continued theological studies in Austria from 1604. He later underwent theological studies at the University of Graz and passed his examinations on 21 December 1607. He was made a sub-deacon on 20 December 1608 and elevated into the diaconate on 16 March 1609. On 22 December 1607, he received the minor orders from Cardinal Franz von Dietrichstein.