On this day in 1260 the Mongols killed a group of 49 Dominican monks in the Polish city of Sandomierz. This took place during the second Mongol invasion of Poland, which followed 19 years after the first (1240/1241).
The second Mongol invasion was bloody indeed, and took place when the Mongol Empire was at the peak of its territorial extent. Namely, when the invasion started in 1259, the Mongol Empire stretched from Korea to Baghdad (the Mongols captured that large city in 1258).
In 1260 – the same year the Dominicans were martyred in Poland – Mongol forces broke into the Holy Land and plundered the area of Galilee, the region where Jesus Christ spent his childhood and youth.
The Mongols committed a massacre of the population in the Polish city of Sandomierz. Their victims included aforementioned 49 Dominican monks, who were headed by the monastery’s prior, Blessed Sadok. In fact, all 49 of them have since been declared Blessed of the Catholic Church. The city of Sandomierz is today located in southeastern Poland, between Krakow and Lublin.
