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Stephen Pongracz

Hungarian Jesuit priest, martyr and saint

Field	Value
honorific_prefix	Saint
name	Stephen Pongracz
honorific_suffix	SJ
birth_name	István Pongrácz
image	PongraczIstvan.gif
caption	17th-century drawing
titles	Martyr
birth_date	c. 1583
birth_place	Alvinc, Principality of Transylvania
death_date	7 September 1619
death_place	Kassa, Kingdom of Hungary
venerated_in	Hungary, Catholic Church, Society of Jesus
beatified_date	15 January 1905
beatified_place	St Peter's Basilica, Rome
beatified_by	Pope Pius X
canonized_date	2 July 1995
canonized_place	Košice, Slovakia
canonized_by	Pope John Paul II
major_shrine	Premonstratensian Church (Kassa)
feast_day	7 September

Stephen Pongracz (; 1584–1619) was a Hungarian Jesuit priest and martyr who is revered as a saint in the Catholic Church.

Biography

Stephen Pongracz was born in Alvincz Castle in Principality of Transylvania, entered the Society of Jesus in 1602, and studied in Bohemia and Austria. He had been ordained for four years when he was sent to Kassa, Kingdom of Hungary, (today Košice, Slovakia) with fellow Jesuit Melchior Grodziecki.

The two Jesuits were working in small towns when they heard the news that a Calvinist army was marching on Kassa in an attempt to expand the territory of Gabriel Bethlen, prince of Transylvania. The two Jesuits returned to Kassa where they were joined by a diocesan priest, Fr. Marko Krizin. The Transylvanian army took control of the city on 5 September 1619, and immediately confined the three priests to the Jesuit residence. Before dawn on 7 September, soldiers broke into their quarters and demanded that they apostatize and accept Calvinism. When the priests refused to do so, the soldiers began to torture them and finally beheaded them.

The bodies of the martyrs were recovered, after negotiations with Gabriel Bethlen, and were buried in the vicinity of Kassa. In 1636, they were moved to Nagyszombat (today Trnava, Slovakia).

Veneration and canonization

The cause of beatification of the Kassa martyrs began in 1628 and they were beatified on 15 January 1905 by Pope Pius X. Pope John Paul II canonized them on 2 July 1995 in Košice during a pastoral visit to Slovakia. Their feast day is on 7 September, the liturgical calendar of the Jesuit order has an additional feast of the Martyrs of the Reformation in Europe on 19 January.

References

(2007-10-11). "Jesuit saints and blesseds".
"Cygański Las – Parafia NMP Królowej Świata w Bielsku-Białej".
"Living Space Saint Stephen Pongracz, Melchior Grodziecki {{!}} Sacred Space".
[http://jesuitinstitute.org/Pages/Liturgy/Calendar.htm Calendar] from JesuitInstitute.org, retrieved 8 September 2020

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jesuit-saints 17th-century-hungarian-jesuits hungarian-roman-catholic-saints martyred-roman-catholic-priests 1619-deaths 1584-births

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