June 2

BB SADOC AND HIS COMPANIONS, MARTYRS (A.D. 1260)

In the year 1221, at the second general chapter of his order, which was held at Bologna, St Dominic charged his sons to go forth into the world to preach the Gospel. One band of missionaries was sent to Hungary and the land of the Tartars -- a region which St Dominic himself had greatly desired to evangelize in person. They were under the leadership of a Hungarian friar named Paul, who was to found the first Dominican province in his native land. Amongst the most zealous and successful of the missionaries was a young man named Sadoc, probably also a Hungarian. After he had preached in Hungary, he passed on to Sandomir in Poland where, while continuing to preach, he founded a Dominican priory, of which he became the superior. In 1260 the Tartars besieged and captured Sandomir. As the brethren were sitting in the refectory, the lector was inspired to announce, as from the martyrology, "At Sandomir, forty-nine martyrs". That was the number of the community. The prior, regarding this as a warning from on high, bade all prepare for death, and the following day the whole community was butchered while singing the "Salve Regina".

It would seem that such materials as the Bollandists in the Acta Sanctorum, June, vol. i, were able to consult regarding this wholesale martyrdom, tend to throw a certain doubt both upon the date and even the fact. A grant of indulgence conceded by Pope Boniface VIII in 1295 speaks only of a general massacre at Sandomir, without making any particular reference to the Dominicans. As, however, the cultus of Bd Sadoc and Companions was confirmed by Pope Pius VII, it may be assumed that evidence was presented which met the difficulties raised. See Mortier, Histoire des moîtres généraux O.P. (1903), t. i, pp. 529-530; the Année Dominicaine; and Procter, Lives of Dominican Saints, pp. 163-166. See also Prileszky, Acta Sanctorum Hungariae (1744), vol. ii, Appendix, pp. 50-53.

Back to the contents
(Butler's Lives of the Saints, Christian Classics, 1995) wmaster@hcbc.hu