Saint Hyacinth

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For the 3rd century martyr, see Hyacinth and Protus.

Saint Hyacinth

Confessor
Born	c. 1185, Kamień Śląski
Died	August 15, 1257, Kraków
Venerated in	Roman Catholic Church
Feast	August 17
Attributes	statue of the Virgin Mary; monstrance
Patronage	UST-Institute of Tourism and Hospitality Management, invoked by those in danger of drowning; Basilica of St. Hyacinth
Saints Portal

Saint Hyacinth, Święty Jacek, Jacek Odrowąż (b. c. 1185 in Kamień Śląski (Ger. Groß Stein) near Opole (Ger. Oppeln), Upper Silesia – d. August 15, 1257 in Kraków, Poland of natural causes) was educated in Paris and Bologna. A Doctor of Sacred Studies and a priest, he worked to reform convents in his native Poland. While in Rome, he witnessed a miracle performed by Saint Dominic, and became a Dominican. He brought the Dominican Order to Poland, then evangelized throughout Poland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Scotland, Russia, Turkey, and Greece.

During an attack on a monastery, Hyacinth managed to save a monstrance (or possibly a ciborium, it is unknown exactly which) containing the Blessed Sacrament and statue of Mary, though the statue weighed far more than he could normally have lifted; the saint is usually shown holding these two items.

Saint Ceslaus was a close relative of Hyacinth, and may have been his brother.^[1] He was canonized on 17 April 1594 by Pope Clement VIII, and his memorial day is 17 August. In 1686 Pope Innocent XI named him a patron of Lithuania. In Spanish, he is known as San Jacinto. He is the patron saint of St. Hyacinth's Basilica, in Chicago, Illinois and of those in danger of drowning. He is also the patron saint of Ermita de Piedra de San Jacinto in Tuguegarao city, Philippines wherein his feastday is celebrated with a procession and folk dance contests. A town called Camalaniugan in the Philippine is also under the said saint's patronage. The town church dedicated to San Jacinto or Saint Hyacinth is home to the oldest church bell (the SANCTA MARIA 1595) in the far east.