Andrew Bobola, SJ was a Polish missionary and martyr of the Society of Jesus, known as the Apostle of Lithuania and the "hunter of souls". He was beaten and tortured to death during the Khmelnytsky Uprising. He was canonized in 1938 by Pope Pius XI.

Bobola was born in 1591 into a noble family in the Sandomir Palatinate in the Province of Lesser Poland of the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland, then a constituent part of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. In 1611 he entered the Society of Jesus in Vilnius, then in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the other part of the Commonwealth. He subsequently professed solemn vows and was ordained in 1622, after which he served for several years as an advisor, preacher, superior of a Jesuit residence, and other jobs in various places.

From 1652 Bobola also worked as a country "missionary", in various locations of Lithuania: these included Polotsk, where he was probably stationed in 1655, and also Pinsk, (both now in Belarus). On 16 May 1657, during the Khmelnytsky Uprising, he was captured in Pinsk by the Cossacks of Bohdan Chmielnicki and subjected to a variety of tortures before being killed in the village of Janów (now Ivanava, Belarus).

Several descriptions of Bobola's death exist. One account states that he "had just offered up the holy sacrifice" when the Cossacks entered Pinsk; upon seeing them, he believed his death to be imminent and thus "fell upon his knees, raised his eyes and his hands [and] exclaimed, 'Lord, thy will be done!'". He was then captured and stripped of his habit, tied to a tree, and had a crown placed on his head, after which he was scourged, burnt with torches, and had an eye torn out; a sword was used to carve shapes resembling a tonsure and a chasuble into his head and his back respectively. The Cossacks also removed the skin from Bobola's fingers and forcibly inserted needles under his fingernails. Bobola continuously prayed for his torturers until his tongue was torn out and his head crushed, thereby killing him.[3] A second account states that the Cossacks first tried to make Bobola renounce his religion; when he refused, he was stripped, tied to a hedge, and whipped. A crown of twigs was mockingly placed on his head and he was then dragged to a butcher's shop where, after continued refusals to renounce his faith, the skin was torn off his chest and back and holes were cut into his palms. Bobola was subjected to further tortures for two hours before having an awl driven into his heart, being strung up by his feet, and being killed with a sabre.[4] A third account states that Bobola was seized and severely beaten by two Cossacks who then tied him to their saddles in order to take him to Janów; there, he was subjected to tortures including burning, strangulation, and flaying, before finally being killed with a sabre.

Born:    1591
Died:    16 May 1657
Venerated in:    Roman Catholicism
Beatified:    30 October 1853, Rome, Papal States by Pope Pius IX
Canonized:    17 April 1938, Vatican City by Pope Pius XI
Major shrine:    Shrine of Saint Andrew Bobola, Warsaw, Poland
Feast Date:    16 May
Patronage:    Poland; Archdiocese of Warsaw

Above taken from Wikipedia