St.Stephen Pongrácz

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

Stephen could have lived an honourable pleasant life in his native Transylvania, but chose to
preach the Gospel in eastern Slovakia.

The king of Hungary requested the services of Jesuits to care for Roman Catholics neglected during the 30 Years War of the early 17th century. Pongracz worked with Hungario-philes, Grodziecki aided slavic- and German-speaking peoples. Their ministries were so successful that they became targets of Calvinist antagonism.

When he preached in Kosice, Hungary, he was granted the palm of martyrdom, which he had
always considered a most enviable reward. A Calvinist prince in Transylvania was taking
advantage of Hungary's involvement in the 30-year war and tried to expand his own territory. At
that 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.
When the Calvinist Minister heard the Jesuits had arrived he sent his soldiers to arrest them. Stephen, Melchior and Mark were then brutally tortured and killed.
The Calvinists refused to allow the remaining Catholic citizens to bury them until three months
had passed. Tenacious as were the Calvinists in their hold on much of this unhappy country they
could not halt the creation of a powerful Catholic bastion there.

Beatified by Pius X in 1905

Canonized by John Paul II on July 2, 1995.