Episode 262: St. Hyacinth

Saint Hyacinth, named the Apostle of the North, was born of noble parents in Poland, about the year 1185. In 1218, as a Canon of Cracow he accompanied the bishop of that region to Rome. There he met Saint Dominic and soon afterward was one of the first to receive the habit of the Friar Preachers, in a group clothed by the patriarch himself. He became a copy of St Dominic. So great was his progress in virtue that within a year Dominic sent him with a small group to preach and start the Order in Poland. His apostolic journeys extended over many regions. Austria, Bohemia, Livonia, the shores of the Black Sea, Tartary, Northern China in the east, Sweden, Norway and Denmark to the west, were evangelized by him, and he is said to have visited Scotland.