Blessed Michał Giedrojć

Michał Giedrojć was born about 1420 at Giedrojcie, some forty-five kilometres from Vilnius, into a known family of the local nobility. Given a solid religious and cultural formation, he developed a great devotion to Christ crucified. Frequent illness in childhood left him short of normal stature and with serious trouble in one leg, and he preferred a retired life of solitude and prayer. Probably because of that disability he was only received at about forty into the Order of the Canons Regular of the Penitence of the Blessed Martyrs at Bystrzyca, near his native village. Transferred to the friary of Saint Mark in Kraków, he enrolled in the city's academy in 1461 and took a bachelor's degree in liberal arts in 1465.

After profession he served as sacristan, edifying both his brethren and the faithful by his patient acceptance of his disability and by a life of intense prayer and penance in a small cell beside the church door. Gifted with prophecy and miracles, he drew many who sought his prayers, counsel and healing. He died of a violent fever on 4 May 1485.