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Saint Andrew Svorad

The only account we have of the life of Saint Andrew Svorad is the hagiographical work of Bishop Maurus of Pecs, written in 1064. According to this document, Andrew Svorad was born around 980 in what is now southern Poland. It was there that he was raised and there that he had his first contacts with the monastic life. He fled from Poland with many other monks of the "Methodian rite" (Byzantine), who were banned in 1022 by King Boleslaus the Valiant for political, economic, and religious reasons.

It was then that Svorad came to the monastery of St. Hippolytus on Mount Zobor in Nitra, Slovakia. He was accepted by the abbot Philip, received the monastic name of Andrew, and lived for awhile in the monastery. He was then given permission to establish a hermitage in the Skalka forest on the Vah River near Trencin. He was known for his many penitential practices, hard work--chopping paths through the dense thicket--and practicing strict fasts. He denied himself sleep through various methods in order to be vigilant and pray through the night, uniting himself with the suffering Christ.

In time, he accepted a disciple, Benedict Stojislav, who came to live with him at Skalka and imitate his eremitical life. Upon the death of Andrew Svorad around 1034, Benedict brought his body back to the monastery on Zobor. When the body was washed, a bronze chain was discovered protruding from his body. Such penitential practices were common in the East, especially among Syrian monks. In the case of Svorad, the chain was so tightly fastened around his body that his flesh grew around it, eventually causing his death by copper poisoning. Although these practices may see strange and bizzare to us today, in those times, such practices were regarded as heroic acts of penance. Svorad's disciple Benedict continued to live at Skalka for a time until bandits, demanding the secrets to his miraculous powers to no avail, bludgeoned and speared him to death, casting his remains into the Vah River.

The monastic veneration of Andrew Svorad and Benedict Skalka spread from Zobor to other monasteries in Slovakia and the Hungarian Kingdom. With the publication of Maurus' text on his life in 1064, the cult became official. King Geza of Hungary promoted his veneration by the faithful and even procured half of the renowned chain as a relic for veneration at his private chapel. With the acknowledgement of Pope Gregory VII in 1083, Geza's son, King Ladislaus, numbered Andrew Svorad among the patron saints of Hungary.

Veneration of Andrew Svorad went as far south as Croatia as is seen in the Mass prayers of the Zagrebian Sacramentary of 1091. Devotion to Andrew Svorad spread northward into Poland also, as is shown by the existence of several churches in his honor by the 12th century--often in connection with SS. Cyril and Method. His relics, along with those of his disciple Benedict, rest today in the cathedral church of St. Emmeram in Nitra, Slovakia. At present, the Benedictine abbey and St. Andrew's Parish in Cleveland are the only ecclesiastical institutions across the Atlantic named in honor of Andrew Svorad.