hn Sarcander was born at Skoczovia, in Upper Silesia, in the year
1577. He obeyed the call of God and joined the ranks of the priesthood.
When ordained priest, he showed himself in every way a pattern of
excellence--by his good works, his science, the integrity and gravity of
his character. He was appointed, accordingly, to the charge and guidance
of souls. He fulfilled so well all the duties of a good pastor that the
four parishes to which he was successively called by episcopal authority
received him as an angel sent to them from heaven, and bore witness by
their tears to their regret when they were deprived of his presence.
Meanwhile, the ministers of the sect of Pikardites were driven from the
parish of Holleschow, where the scourge of heresy, like the wild boar of
the forests, had spread devastation during eight years. John Sarcander was
selected in order to repair the incalculable evil that had been done to
that unfortunate vineyard. He shrunk not from the struggle which it
behooved him to maintain in the cause of the true faith. He was in every
sense an example to his flock. He exhorted, beseeched, reprimanded with
patience and wisdom, neglecting nothing that was calculated to strengthen
whatever was weak and heal what was sick, to reunite those who were
separated, to raise up the fallen and seek such as were astray. Such
exemplary conduct only excited the extreme hatred of the heretical party,
and he was obliged to leave Holleschow and retire to Poland. But moved by
the dangers to which were exposed the people whom he loved so dearly in
Christ, he returned to his parish, after having venerated the Holy Virgin
at her shrine of Crenstochow, in fulfilment of a vow which he had made.
Soon after his return the heretics cast him into prison as a traitor to
his country, but, in reality, on account of his zeal in preaching the
Catholic faith. He was subjected to vigorous interrogatories, and in order
to induce him to reveal what the supreme head of the administration in
Moravia had confided to him in confession, he was made to undergo the most
exquisite torture. Preferring a glorious death to a miserable life, he
combated to his last breath for the work of Christ, and gave up his soul
to God, leaving to all the people the remembrance of his death as an
example of fortitude and courage. Fearfully tortured on the rack for three
hours, burned slowly in almost every part of his body, by torches and
bundles of feathers steeped