Saint Hyacinth was one of the first members of the Dominicans (the Order of Preachers) and the “apostle of the North”, and is also called the “Apostle of Poland.” He was born into nobility in 1185 at the castle of Lanka, at Kamin, in Silesia, Poland. He could receive an impressive education, becoming a Doctor of Law and Divinity before traveling to Rome with his uncle, Ivo Konski, the Bishop of Krakow.
He met St. Dominic and decided to join the Order of Preachers immediately. And he received his habit from Dominic himself in 1220.
After his novitiate, he made his religious profession and was made superior to the little band of missionaries sent to Poland to preach. In Poland, the new preachers were well received and their sermons produced a deep conversion in the people.
Hyacinth also founded communities in Sandomir, Kracow, and Plocko on the Vistula in Moravia. He extended his missionary work through Prussia, Pomerania, and Lithuania. Then, crossing the Baltic Sea, he preached in Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Russia, reaching the shores of the Black Sea.
On his return to Krakow, he died, on 15 August 1257.