Andrew Bobola - Relics and Canonization

Relics and Canonization

Bobola's body was originally buried in the Jesuit church in Pinsk. It was later moved to their church in Polotsk.

By the beginning of the 18th century, however, nobody knew where Bobola's body was buried. In 1701 Father Martin Godebski, S.J., the Rector of the Pinsk College, reputedly had a vision of Bobola. This caused him to order a search for the body. It was reportedly found completely incorrupt, which was recognized by the Church and its supporters as proof of holiness. In 1719 the casket was officially reopened and the body inspected by qualified medical personnel (five physicians and pharmacists). It was reportedly still completely incorrupt: pliable and with soft flesh.

In 1922 Bolsheviks moved the corpse, later described by an American journalist as a "remarkably well-preserved mummy", to the Museum of Hygiene of People's Commissioners of Health in Moscow. The whereabouts of the remains was not known to the Catholic authorities, and Pope Pius XI charged the Papal Famine Relief Mission in Russia, headed by American Jesuit Father Edmund A. Walsh, with the task of locating and "rescuing" them. In October 1923— as a kind of "pay" for help during famine — the remains were released to Walsh and his Assistant Director, Father Louis J. Gallagher, S.J. Well packed by the two Jesuits, they were delivered to the Holy See by Gallagher on All Saints' Day (1 November) 1923. In May 1924, the relics were installed in Rome's Church of the Gesù, the main church of the Society of Jesus.

Since 17 June 1938 the body has been venerated at a shrine in Warsaw, with an arm remaining at the original shrine in Rome.

Declared Blessed by Pope Pius IX on 30 October 1853, Bobola was canonized by Pope Pius XI on 17 April 1938. His feast day was originally celebrated by the Jesuits on 23 May, but it is now generally celebrated on 16 May. On his feast day in 2002, Pope John Paul II declared Bobola a patron saint of Poland and of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Warsaw.

Today some join Bobola with St. Peter the Aleut, an alleged martyr for the Orthodox faith at the hands of Roman Catholics, in a special devotion for the reunion of the two branches of Christianity. However, the historicity of the martyrdom of Peter the Aleut is not clearly established.