Krystyn

Who they were

Christian was the servant of five Camaldolese monks, led by Benedict of Benevento, who had been sent by Saint Romuald at the request of Emperor Otto III to evangelise Poland. The group settled in a hermitage at Kazimierz near Gniezno, given to them by Duke Boleslaus I.

On 12 November 1003 the hermitage was attacked by pagan robbers seeking ten pounds of silver that Boleslaus had entrusted to the monks as a gift for the Pope. The monks Benedict, John, Matthew and Isaac were killed, and their servant Christian was hanged within the enclosure of the church. Only the novice Barnabas, who had left early for Rome, survived. They are commemorated together as the first martyrs of Poland.

The miracles

There was never a formal cause: he has been honoured as a saint since before the Church's formal processes began.

Why that counted as sanctity

Servant hanged alongside the Camaldolese monks Benedict, John, Matthew and Isaac, protomartyrs of Poland, killed by robbers at Kazimierz in 1003.