A hundred years before it happened, Saint Andrew Bobola predicted that Poland would be back on the map

In 1819, Tsar Alexander I, worried about patriotic unrest in Poland, which was divided between Austria and the Russian Empire, asked his police to exercise close control over intellectuals suspected of fostering the country's nationalist sentiments. Among them, some of the Catholic clergy maintained - in addition to their attachment to the faith of Rome - ancestral customs, the use of the Polish language and the transmission of literature, thus preventing the integration of the population into the Russian Orthodox model. The priests judged to be the most influential, and therefore the most dangerous, were imprisoned. Among them was a well-known Jesuit, Father Korzeniecki, who was placed under house arrest in his order's house in Vilnius. After several months of imprisonment, demoralised, he had the idea of praying to the Polish priest Andrew Bobola, martyred by Ukrainian Cossacks on 16 May 1657. Suddenly, he distinctly heard Father Bobola's voice telling him to open his window and watch "a vision the like of which he had never seen".

Les raisons d'y croire :

• Father Korzeniecki gave a detailed account of his vision and the prophecy that accompanied it, published in 1854 in the Civiltà Cattolica, a reputable Roman publication. Widely circulated in Polish nationalist circles, it is widely known and its authenticity has never been questioned.

• When the priest opened the window and looked out, instead of the cloister of his convent, he saw a vast plain on which countless armies were waging a titanic battle with unknown and terrifying weaponry. The soldiers were wearing light-color uniforms that were also unfamiliar to him. However, he identified Russian, Austrian, Prussian, French, British and Turkish troops in the flags unfurled on the battlefield. He also saw flags he had never seen before. He couldn't understand how such diverse nations could clash so violently. It wasn't until the First World War that the vision made sense and the uniforms adopted from 1915 onwards were recognised, no longer resembling those of the past, which made for easy targets and resulted an excessive number of casualties.

• Bewildered, the Jesuit didn't know how to interpret this appalling slaughter. Father Bobola said to him: "When peace follows the war you see before you, Poland will be restored." This indeed happened in 1919, one hundred years after the vision. Over the course of these hundred years, despite many tragedies, the Poles repeated this prophecy and believed that it would come true, and they were proven right.

• To convince Father Korzeniecki, who feared he was the victim of an illusion, Andrew Bobola placed his right hand on the table in the cell, which kept the imprint as proof that his visit was real.

• This was not the first time that Father Bobola had appeared in Poland after his death, during tragic circumstances for Poland. On 19 April 1702, when the town of Pinsk in Lithuania was threatened by an attack from Cossacks, who were known to be ruthless towards Catholics, the headmaster of the Jesuit college, asking in his prayers which saint would be able to protect the school, was told: "Are you looking for a powerful protector in God's sight? Why don't you come to me? I am Father Andrew Bobola, put to death by the Cossacks in hatred of the faith. Look for my body and I will protect the college."

• The superior had the church searched, but for two days nothing came of it. Father Bobola then appeared a second time and indicated that he lay in a forgotten vault to the right of the main altar. After digging in the spot indicated, they discovered a grave containing decomposed corpses and another, free of all corruption, whose liturgical ornaments were rotten and falling to dust: it was the body of Fr. Andrew Bobola.

• Witnesses noted that, in accordance with what was said about the conditions of Father Andrew's long and atrocious martyrdom, the body was covered in horrible wounds and various mutilations, which made it even more impossible for it to be perfectly preserved.

• To everyone's amazement, when the body was moved, the wounds began to bleed again; fresh red blood came out, along with an exquisite perfume that pervaded the church. As promised by the martyr, the town was spared from the Cossacks.

• Many years later, when the Soviets took over the region, one of their first concerns was to remove the body of Saint Andrew Bobola, canonised in 1938 and declared patron saint of Poland - proof that he bothered them, both for his protection of his homeland and for the miracle he embodied, which bothered the atheist regime. Transported to Moscow, the remains were exhibited for several years in a museum designed to mock Christian beliefs.

• As proof of the Church's interest, the Vatican began negotiations to recover the relics. It finally obtained them and had them transported to Warsaw. Pius XII would not have tried so hard to recover the saint's relics if the miracles attributed to Andrew Bobola were mere legends.