Great Dominicans: Blessed Sadoc and His Companions

The saintly Dominican, Blessed Sadoc, along with his companions, were some of the earliest martyrs of the Dominican Order. Blessed Sadoc was a student at Bologna when he met St Dominic, and was received by him into the Order of Preachers. He was Slav and had a great desire to preach the Gospel especially in the north of Europe. So he set off with Paul of Hungary and eventually ended up in Sandomir, Poland. He became Prior of the Convent of St James in Sandomir, having previously been Prior in Agram, Hungary, for a period of time. 

In 1260, Poland was under siege by the Tartars and it was at their hands that Blessed Sadoc and his companion were to be martyred. On the night before their triumphant entry into the Heavenly Kingdom, it is said that Blessed Sadoc and the forty-eight other brothers were gathered in prayer at midnight to celebrate Matins; one of the brothers got up to read the martyrology, but on seeing the pages, he saw written in gold letters: ‘At Sandomir, the passion of forty-nine martyrs.’ Blessed Sadoc and his brethren understood what this meant and spent the following hours together in prayer. It was during the singing of the Salve Regina that the Tartars stormed the church and proceeded to bludgeon Blessed Sadoc and his companions. It is said one brother tried to flee, but on hearing his brethren singing, realised that they were going off to heaven without him. He abandoned his flight of escape, and embraced with great courage the consequences of remaining with his religious family. 

The Dominicans of Poland enjoyed and practiced the privilege of wearing a red cincture band around the habit, a sign of the great sacrifices made by the many martyrs of the Order in that country for remaining true to the Faith. Let us pray too that we may have the grace to shed our blood for the sake of the Gospel in the same courageous fashion as Blessed Sadoc and his companions, if this be what Our Lord wills for us.