St.Melchior Grodziecki

One of the three Martyrs of Kosice put to death at the hands of fanatical Calvinists along with
Stephen Pongrácz and Mark Crisinus, who was the Cathedral Canon in Kosice, Hungary.

Born into the Polish aristocracy in Silesia.
He met his companion, St.Stephen Pongrácz, in the Jesuit novitiate at Brno in 1603.
Taught and preached in Prague.
During the 30-Years' War, however, as Jesuits were driven from one place to another,
Melchior's journeys through Moravia and Slovakia finally led to his martyrdom when he arrived in Kosice, Hungary where he went to help fortify the Catholics there.

A Calvinist prince in Transylvania was taking advantage of Hungary's war involvement and
moved to expand his territory. At the time Kosice was a stronghold of Hungarian Calvinists, and the few Catholics who lived in the city and its outlying districts had been without a priest for
some time.
Melchior came to help the Polish speaking Catholics and Stephen Pongrácz came for those who
spoke a Slavic language or German. When the Calvinist Minister heard the Jesuits had arrived
he sent his soldiers to arrest them.
Melchior, Stephen and Mark were brutally burned, dismembered and then beheaded.

Beatified by Pius X in 1905

Canonized by John Paul II on July 2, 1995.