Benedict, John, Isaac, Matthew, and Christian, Called the Five Polish Brothers, Saints

BENEDICT, JOHN, ISAAC, MATTHEW and CHRISTINUS, also called the FIVE POLISH BROTHERS, saints. - Benedict, from Benevento, at first a priest, canon and monk, then devoted himself to the eremitical life on Mount Soratte and afterwards in the vicinity of Montecassino, until, having joined St. Romuald, he went with him to Ravenna. When, in 1001, Otto III wished to prepare the ecclesiastical organization of Poland and extend evangelization to the still-pagan Slavic lands, Bruno of Querfurt pointed out to the young emperor the holy Italian ascetic, and Otto persuaded Benedict to found a community of missionary hermits in Poland.

With Benedict went one of his companions in devotion at Ravenna, John, and in the places where he was to carry out his ministry two Poles, Isaac and Matthew, joined him. Encouraged by the zeal of Duke Boleslaus, Benedict carried out his mission with his companions for some months, while Bruno of Querfurt evangelized eastern Hungary. Suspected of carrying large sums of money, which they had in fact returned to the duke, Benedict and his companions, and with them the cook Christinus (or Christian) who had rushed in vain to their defense, were in the night of 10-11 November 1003 slaughtered by some criminals. Through the intervention of the bishop of Poznan, Unger, they were buried in their church. Very soon miracles and visions occurred around the tombs, as a result of which the duke, having granted the assassins their lives, bound them as servants to guard the tomb of their victims, who immediately received public veneration as martyrs.

In 1038 Duke Bretislaus of Bohemia, who had already seized the body of St. Adalbert, disinterred and brought to Olmütz also the remains of the "five brothers," as they soon began to be called. The confirmation of their cult by Julius II is an invention of the 17th century. The Roman Martyrology commemorates them on 12 November, the day of their deposition.