GIACINTO, santo. – Dominican, of a noble Polish family, perhaps the Odrowaz, born at Gross-Stein in Silesia toward the end of the 12th century and died at Cracow on 15 August 1257. While still young, he was made a canon of the cathedral of Cracow by Bishop Ivo. Having completed his scientific training at a studium generale (at Bologna?), he returned to Cracow, where he was a valuable assistant to the bishop in the governance of the diocese. In 1218 the bishop himself chose him as companion and adviser on a journey to Rome, to the papal court.
There G. met s. Domenico, who received him into the Order together with two other companions, Ceslao and Ermanno, who likewise belonged to the retinue of Bishop Ivo. In 1219 he was sent with his companions to Poland by s. Domenico himself and, along the way, founded a convent at Friesach in Kärnten. A second convent was founded by G. at Cracow in the parish of the Most Holy Trinity, where he resided until 1222; and a third he founded in 1223 at Kiev, after an apostolic expedition among the Vandals of Masovia. In 1226, after founding a new convent at Danzig, he returned to Cracow. He was the initiator of the Dominican missions in Ruthenia. He was canonized by Clement VIII in 1594. Feast day: 17 August.
ICONOGRAPHY. – From the time of his canonization (1594), there are several iconographic representations of the Saint, including his legend painted by Francesco Vanni in the church of S. Domenico in Siena; the altarpiece by Anteveduto Gramatica in the Polish church of S. Stanislao in Rome, depicting the Savior among three Polish saints; and the frescoes by Federico Zuccari in the church of S. Sabina in Rome, where he is also depicted in an altarpiece by Lavinia Fontana. The painting of St. G. in the church of S. Maria della Scala in Rome, on the other hand, appears to be an eighteenth-century copy of a lost painting by Anteveduto Gramatica, made for that church in 1602. St. G. is represented as a Dominican of middle age; at times he is shown standing on a cloak in the middle of a river. This representation alludes to his miracle of crossing the Vistula.