Saint Marko Krizin

Marko Stjepan Krizin (c. 1588 – 7 September 1619), or Marko Križevčanin (Hungarian: Kőrösi Márk, lit. 'Mark of Križevci') was a Croatian Roman Catholic priest, professor of theology and missionary, who was active in the 17th century. In the course of the struggle between Catholicism and Calvinism in the region then, he was executed for his faith. He has been declared a saint by the Catholic Church, the third Croat to be so honored. Krizin was born in Križevci, in the Kingdom of Croatia. He started his studies in the Jesuit college in Vienna, and then later at the University of Graz, where he studied under Péter Pázmány and became a Doctor of Philosophy. As a candidate for Holy Orders of the Diocese of Zagreb, Krizin then moved to Rome. He stayed at the Collegium Germanicum et Hungaricum while attending the Pontifical Gregorian University. He personally noted his nationality as Croatian in a document which is available in the college archives. As a student he was smart and considerate. He studied there from 1611 to 1615. After ordination, Krizin returned to his diocese, where he stayed only a short while. Cardinal Péter Pázmány, Archbishop of Esztergom (then living in Nagyszombat – present-day Trnava – because of the continuing Ottoman occupation of much of Hungary), called him from Zagreb and appointed him both rector of the local seminary and canon of the cathedral chapter. In early 1619, Krizin was sent to administer the estate of the former Benedictine Abbey of Széplak, near Kassa, Hungary (now Košice, Slovakia). Around the same time, the Calvinist Prince of Transylvania, Gábor Bethlen, led a nationalist uprising against the Austrian Habsburgs, who then ruled Hungary. At the time, Kassa was a stronghold of Calvinism for Hungary. To help the Catholic minority, the governor of the city, Andrija Dóczi, a Catholic appointed by Emperor Matthias, brought two Jesuit priests to Kassa: István Pongrácz and Melchior Grodziecki.