Reflecting on St. Hyacinth
Every Wednesday, our Sisters sing a hymn to St. Hyacinth. Like many Latin odes, it is full of puns and superlatives. Playing on both hyacinth flowers and hyacinth stones, it addresses the saint as “more pure than all flowers” and “clearer than all gems”. But who is St. Hyacinth? Why is this man with the flowery name, featured in our stained glass and statues, and fêted on August 17th, so important to us?
Hyacinth was a well-positioned diocesan priest when he traveled to Rome and encountered St. Dominic. Hyacinth was so taken by the founder of this upstart Order of Preachers that he immediately asked to join the project. St. Dominic accepted him, and within a year sent back him to his homeland to preach the Gospel. St. Hyacinth’s zeal earns him our gratitude for bringing the Dominican Order to eastern Europe: he preached not just to his home area in southwestern Poland, but up north around the Baltic Sea and in today’s Lithuania, Ukraine, and Russia.
Many miracles attest to St. Hyacinth’s holiness, but perhaps he’s best known for his close relationship to the Blessed Mother. Under an attack from Muslim Tartars, St. Hyacinth once entered a burning church to rescue the Blessed Sacrament. As he turned to flee the flames, he heard a voice ask pitifully, “Are you taking the Son and leaving the Mother?” Turning, he saw a large statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary addressing him. Practically, St. Hyacinth pointed out that the statue was too heavy for him to carry (not to mention evade Tartar pursuit)! The Virgin Mother promised she would lighten the load, and St. Hyacinth bravely carried her statue to safety along with the Eucharist.
St. Hyacinth certainly knew that Mary was not present in the statue like Jesus was in the Eucharist, but he also knew what the statue represented to her honor. And he accepted as fact that—while the laws of nature are of no obstacle to God—He regularly uses tangible materials such as oil, wood, cloth, and stone to reach us. Do you have a favorite sacramental and story with it?
