• Listen

  What it means

  Pancras, Servatius, Boniface and Sophie are the cold saints. This variant adds Saint Sophie (15 May) to the Ice Saints, extending the cold spell to four days.

  Vocabulary

  • Pankracy — Pancras (saint's name)
  • Serwacy — Servatius (saint's name)
  • Bonifacy — Boniface (saint's name)
  • Zośka — Sophie (familiar form of Zofia)
  • zimny — cold
  • święty — saint, holy

  Grammar note

  'Zimni święci' is the predicate nominative plural. 'To' here functions as 'are' (a copula).

  Cultural context

  Saint Sophie's feast day is 15 May. 'Zośka' is the affectionate diminutive of Zofia (Sophie). Adding her extends the Ice Saints period to 12–15 May.

  Intermediate

Noticed a typo, a wrong translation, or anything that doesn't look right? We'd love to fix it — just let us know via the contact page. Thank you!