Pavol Peter Gojdič

Infobox Saint
name=Blessed Pavel Gojdič
birth_date=birth date|1888|7|17|mf=y
death_date=death date and age|1960|7|17|1888|7|17|mf=y
feast_day= July 17
venerated_in=Catholic Church


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birth_place=Ruské Pekľany
death_place=Leopoldov
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beatified_date=4 November 2001
beatified_place=
beatified_by=Pope John Paul II
canonized_date=pending
canonized_place=
canonized_by=
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patronage=
major_shrine=
suppressed_date=
issues=

Pavol Gojdič, also known as Pavel Peter Gojdič or Peter Gojdič (July 17 1888 — July 17 1960), was a Basilian monk and the bishop of the Greek Catholic Eparchy of Prešov martyred by the communist regime in Czechoslovakia.

On April 28, 1950, the Communist state outlawed the Greek-Catholic Church and Bishop Pavol was incarcerated. In January 1951 he was convicted on trumped-up charges of treason. Abused in multiple prisons, he remained faithful, praying and saying Mass in secret. He was eventually given the offer to be released on the condition that he assume the position of the patriarch of the Czechoslovak Orthodox Church. He rejected the offer as an infidelity to the Pope and the faithful. He continued to be inprisoned and to suffer mistreatment, dying in a prison hospital on his birthday in 1960.

He was officially honored by the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial in 2008 as one of the Righteous Among the Nations. [http://www.sktoday.com/content/1151_israel-awards-nine-slovaks-righteous-among-nations-title]

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