Saint Hyacinth has been considered as the patron saint of strength. There is a reason behind this: Saint Hyacinth, doing the heavy lifting while the world burns.
The story originated in Poland.
Saint Hyacinth was born in 1185 in Silesia, Poland. He was well connected, as his uncle was the archbishop of Krakow. He got involved in the Dominican order, which led him to Rome, back to Poland, and eventually to Kyiv. It was in Kyiv that he became the legendary.
While Saint Hyacinth, the Dominican, was doing ministry, the Catholic Church in Kyiv ran into a horde of misfortune. The story goes:
“During the Mongol assault on Kyiv, St. Hyacinth and his fellow friars prepared to evacuate the city; but before leaving the city, St. Hyacinth headed into the church to retrieve the Blessed Sacrament from the tabernacle. After securing the ciborium that contained the Eucharist, St. Hyacinth proceeded to the exit of the church, but on his way out he heard a voice.
You can see Hyacinth holding the ciborium with his right arm in the picture above. The ciborium is “a receptacle shaped like a shrine or a cup with an arched cover” that holds the Eucharist, or what’s more commonly known as the communion wafers. You can also see those not-so-polite Mongol hordes destroying Kyiv behind him. He was about to flee the church, but a divine intervention stopped him.
“The soft, gentle voice of Mary, the Mother of God, rang in the ear of the faithful Dominican. The Blessed Mother instructed him not to abandon her in the church. So, St. Hyacinth promptly spun around and grabbed the enormous statue of Mary that was in the sanctuary. Hoisting the stone sculpture onto his shoulder and carrying the ciborium in the other hand, St. Hyacinth marched out of the church with Jesus and Mary in tow.”
Leaving the church and saving those relics. Thus, the patron saint of weightlifting/weightlifters was born. Based on his heroics and display of hysterical strength, Saint Hyacinth became “a paragon of masculine holiness.”