BEATI MARTYRS OF C. — There are three:
1) CRISINUS MARCUS STEPHANUS (Lat. Crisinus, Croat. Križevčanin, Slov. Križin, Hung. Kőrösy). Canon of the metropolitan see of Strigonia, b. at Križevci (Crisio) in Croatia in 1588, d. at C. on 7 Sept. 1619. Of a noble Croatian family, he studied at Graz, obtaining the doctorate in philosophy; from 1611–1615 he was at Rome in the Gregorian University as a student of the Germanicum. On his return to Croatia he exercised zealously the pastoral care. In 1616 Cardinal Pázmány called him to his archdiocese of Strigonia and appointed him professor and rector of the seminary of Tirnava; in 1617 canon of Strigonia (though resident at Tirnava, whither the metropolitan curia had been transferred because of the Turks); in 1618 archdeacon of the district of Komárno. At the beginning of 1619 he was sent by the Chapter to administer the goods of the former Benedictine abbey of Krásna (Széplak), near C. (Košice).
2) GRODECIUS MELCHIOR (Lat. Grode-cius, Pol. Grodziecki, Slov. Grodecký, Hung. Grodecz), priest, Jesuit, b. at Tešín in Silesia in 1584, d. at C. on 7 Sept. 1619. He entered the Society of Jesus at Brno, preached at Prague, then at Hunmenné in Slovakia, and in 1619 was sent to C. as chaplain to the imperial troops.
3) PONGRATIUS STEPHANUS (Lat. Pancratius, or Pongratius, Hung. Pongracz, Slov. Pongrač), priest, Jesuit, b. at the castle of Alvincz in Transylvania in 1582, d. at C. on 8 Sept. 1619. He entered the Society of Jesus at Brno in 1602, studied philosophy at Prague, theology at Graz. He worked in the colleges of Ljubljana, Klagenfurt and Hamenné. In 1619 he was sent to C. to care especially for the Hungarians.
All three were martyred at C. (Košice) on 7 Sept. 1619 by Calvinist soldiers under György Rákóczy, general of the Protestant prince Gábor Bethlen. Their relics, first buried in the cellars of the house of martyrdom, were acquired and transferred in 1620 by Countess Katalin Pálffy to Nižný Šeběš, then in 1635 to Tirnava, first to the church of the Clarisses and later, in 1784, to the church of the Ursulines. After 1904, following an examination, the relics of Bl. Crisinus were deposited at Strigonia, and those of the two Jesuits in the Jesuit church at Tirnava. They were beatified on 15 Jan. 1905.