Five holy brothers

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The Five Holy Brothers (Benedict (* around 980 in Benevento , Italy ); Christian (* in Poland ); Isaak (* in Poland); Johannes (* around 940 in Venice ); Matthäus (* in Poland) from the Meseritz Monastery, Polish . : Międzyrzecz ) were on the night of 10./11. Murdered November 1003 in a robbery near Konin . They were canonized in 1004 and are the first Polish martyrs to be venerated.

Martyrdom of the Five Holy Brothers

Founding of a monastery

In 1001, Duke Bolesław the Brave asked the German Emperor Otto III. to found a monastery and proclaim the word of God to the Slavs. He chose the desert near Meseritz as the location and generously furnished it with land. He entrusted his relative Brun von Querfurt with the management. On the trip to Rome in the same year, the emperor and Brun met Benedikt and Johannes, who got them enthusiastic about their project and took them with them to Poland. The brothers Isaac and Matthew, who came from a wealthy family, joined them. Christian from a nearby village joined them.

Benedict

Polish: Benedykt, also Benedikt von Pereum (* around 970 in Benevento), from a wealthy family, was ordained a priest, but chose the life of a hermit and lived near Monte Cassino . There he met Johannes, with whom he moved to the island of Pereum in order to found a hermitage there in the swamps of the Valli di Comacchio north of Ravenna . He met the emperor and went to Poland as a missionary .

John

Polish: Jan (* around 940 in Venice), from a wealthy patrician family, left his hometown in 978 and went to a monastery in Cuxa in the Pyrenees . His teacher there was Romuald , who later founded the order of the Camaldolese . Back in Italy he met Benedict and went with him to the island of Pereum to live there as a hermit according to the rule of St. Benedict as a "Camaldolese". Together with Benedict he went at the request of Emperor Otto III. to Poland to proclaim the Christian faith.

Isaac and Matthew

Polish: Izaak and Mateusz (* in Poland), probably their first baptized, were the brothers Isaak and Matthäus (perhaps nobles or princes). They joined the community in 1002. They were of great importance for proselytizing as they spoke the national language.

Christian

Polish: Krystyn (* around 980 in Poland), a young man from a village in the vicinity of the monastic settlement, joined the community and performed auxiliary services as a lay brother .

martyrdom

Reliquary
Rokitten, diocese of Zielona Góra-Gorzów

Her martyrdom and murder are reported in two legends:

On the one hand, Benedict von Boleslaw I, who was in a military conflict with Ekkehard von Meißen, was supposed to have been called to Prague to bring silver to Rome for the Pope together with the Italian Barnabas , as a gift and a request, the Pope may Boleslaw crown King of Poland. But then Barnabas received the order and Benedict returned to his monastery in Poland. The monks went against their confreres and were attacked and killed at Konin by robbers who suspected the silver to be in them.

On the other hand, the monastery is said to have been attacked on the night of November 11th to 12th, 1003, Benedict and Johannes were killed in their cells with the sword. Isaac was murdered in the cell next door. Matthew was pierced by spears as he tried to escape to church. Christian wanted to defend the monastery and was also killed. He was hanged near the sanctuary.

From Pope John XVIII. the martyrs of Międzyrzecz were canonized in 1004.

In the iconography they are shown in the white habit of the Camaldolese , their attribute is the wheel of torture.

You are the patron of the Zielona Góra-Gorzów diocese . The first Polish martyrs are particularly venerated in the diocese of Włocławek .

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