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| St. Marko Krizin |
Marko Krizin was born in 1588 in Križevci, Croatia. He studied philosophy in Graz, Austria, where he joined the
Congregation of Mary. Krizin decided to become a priest, so he was sent to Rome
to stay at the Pontifical German and Hungarian College and study theology as a
candidate of the Diocese of Zagreb, Croatia.
He was studying at the Pontifical Gregorian
University from 1611 to 1615, and was intelligent, virtuous and diligent. Marko
was ordained as priest and after that returned to his Diocese of Zagreb, where
he performed pastoral work. Shortly after, the Archbishop of Ostrogon and
Cardinal Petar Pázmány summoned him to Hungary. Till 1616 he was a teacher and
headmaster of the Trnava Seminary in Slovakia and was appointed canon.
At the time Košiće, was a fort of Hungarian Calvinism. In order to
help the few Catholics left, who were even deprived of their churches, two
Jesuits, a Hungarian Stephen Pongrácz, and a Pole, Melchior Grodziecki, were summoned to look after the faithful who
spoke Hungarian and Slovakian. Mark of Križevci a Croatian worked with them in
1619 as a missionary.
At the time of the Calvinist uprising against the Catholics under a Calvinist
commander George Rákóczy came to Košice with his army and imprisoned the three
missionaries. As they refused to convert to Calvinism, the three missionaries
were tortured to death. Mark was set on fire by a torch and decapitated on
September 7, 1619. The Jesuit Grodziecki was murdered on the same day, and Pongrácz
the following day.
The coffin, with the remains of the three
martyrs now lies in the Ursuline church in Trnava, where the veneration of the
martyrs developed.
Holy Pope Pius X beatified them on January
15, 1905.
Pope
John Paul II canonized these three martyrs for their faith on July 2, 1995 in
Košice.
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