St Josaphat Kuntsevych: Martyr for Unity with Rome

St Josaphat Kuntsevych (c. 1580-1623) was a monk and then archbishop of Polotsk, in the Ruthenian lands of the old Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, who belonged to the Byzantine rite and gave his life for the union of his Church with the See of Peter. He was killed by a mob at Vitebsk on 12 November 1623, crying that he was ready to die "for the holy union, for the supremacy of St Peter and of his successor the Supreme Pontiff". In the calendar of 1962 his feast is kept on 14 November; here are his life, his martyrdom, the prayers of his Mass, and an important clarification about another, legendary Josaphat.

Who was St Josaphat?

The Union of Brest

To understand him, one date is needed. In October 1595 at Brest-Litovsk, the metropolitan of Kiev and five bishops of the Ruthenian Church (the ancestors of today's Ukrainians and Belarusians), till then separated from Rome, decided to seek communion with the Holy See, keeping their own Byzantine liturgy and customs. The union was bitterly contested, and the man whose feast we keep became, in Butler's words, "the protomartyr of the reunion of Christendom".

Youth and monastic life

He was born at Vladimir in Volhynia, about 1580 (Butler gives 1580 or 1584; the Breviary says he died in his forty-third year), and baptized John. His parents were Catholics; his father was a burgess of good family. The Roman Breviary tells that as a small child, hearing his mother speak of the Passion of Christ, he felt as it were a dart from the side of an image of Christ crucified wound his heart, and from then on gave himself to prayer.

He was apprenticed to a merchant at Vilna (Vilnius). He cared little for trade and spent his free time learning Church Slavonic, the liturgical language of his rite, so as to pray the long Byzantine Office every day. He did his work so well that his master offered him a partnership and the hand of his daughter. He refused both, and in 1604 entered the monastery of the Holy Trinity at Vilna, taking the name Josaphat.

There he was joined by Joseph Benjamin Rutsky, a convert from Calvinism, and the two young monks set about reforming Ruthenian monastic life and working for the union. Josaphat was ordained deacon and priest and became a famous preacher. His austerity astonished even ascetics: the Breviary says he walked barefoot in the harshest winters, never ate meat, drank wine only under obedience, and wore a rough hair shirt until his death. When Rutsky became metropolitan of Kiev in 1614, Josaphat succeeded him as abbot (archimandrite) of Vilna.

Archbishop of Polotsk

In 1617 he was consecrated bishop of Vitebsk with the right of succession to the archdiocese of Polotsk, and a few months later, on the death of the old archbishop, he became archbishop: "unwillingly", says the Breviary, "but to the joy of the Catholics". He found a vast diocese in ruins: churches falling down, benefices in the hands of laymen, a clergy often unworthy. He held synods, published a catechism and imposed its use, gave rules of life to his priests, recovered church property seized by the local lords, and visited the poor, the sick, the prisoners and the remotest villages himself. His charity was proverbial: once, having nothing to give a poor widow, he had his own episcopal pallium, the omophorion, pawned for her.

Butler stresses a point that matters: Josaphat defended the union with Rome and the full rights of the Byzantine rite. He insisted that his clergy and customs be treated as equal to the Latin ones, and for that he was misunderstood by some Latin bishops of Poland as well as hated by the opponents of the union. On the Eastern Churches in communion with Rome today, see our page on the Eastern Catholic Churches.

How did St Josaphat die?

In 1620 a rival hierarchy opposed to the union was set up, and Meletius Smotritsky was sent to Polotsk as a rival archbishop. He spread the claim that Josaphat had "turned Latin" and would force his people to do the same. Several towns, Vitebsk above all, turned against him; riots broke out, and his life was threatened.

In October 1623 he decided to go to Vitebsk once more. He refused a military escort: "If I am accounted so worthy as to deserve martyrdom, then I am not afraid to die." For a fortnight he preached and visited every house without distinction. Surrounded one day by a hostile crowd, he said: "I am here among you as your shepherd, and you ought to know that I should be happy to give my life for you. I am ready to die for the holy union, for the supremacy of St Peter and of his successor the Supreme Pontiff."

A plot was laid to kill him on 12 November. That morning a priest named Elias, set up to provoke a quarrel, insulted him to his face as he went to the church for the morning Office, and Josaphat let his deacon shut him in a room of the house. The town bells were rung and a mob gathered. After the Office the archbishop released Elias with a warning, but the crowd broke into the house and began striking his servants. Josaphat went out to them: "My children, what are you doing with my servants? If you have anything against me, here I am: but leave them alone." With cries of "Kill the papist!" he was struck down with a halberd and shot, and his body was thrown into the river Dvina.

Why was St Josaphat of Polotsk put to death? Because he would not give up the union of his Church with the Roman Pontiff. His killers saw him as the man who had brought the Ruthenians under Rome; he died, by his own words, for "the holy union" and "the supremacy of St Peter". The Church honours him as a martyr of the unity of the Church, one of the four marks of the Church.

The Breviary relates that his body was drawn up from the bottom of the river surrounded by a wonderful light, and that his blood bore fruit first in his murderers: almost all of them, condemned to death, abjured the schism and repented of their crime. Even Meletius Smotritsky was later reconciled with the Holy See.

Beatification, canonization and his relics

Pope Urban VIII declared him Blessed. Pope Pius IX canonized him on 29 June 1867, during the eighteenth centenary of the martyrdom of Saints Peter and Paul, in St Peter's Basilica, before some five hundred patriarchs, archbishops and bishops of every rite. He was the first saint of the Eastern Churches to be canonized after a formal process in the Congregation of Rites, and he stands among the Catholic saints as the great witness of unity between East and West. Pope Leo XIII then extended his Office and Mass to the whole Church.

His relics, after long wanderings, were brought to Rome, and on 22 November 1963 they were laid in St Peter's Basilica, beneath the altar of St Basil the Great, the father of Eastern monasticism, close to the tomb of the Apostle for whose successor he died (see St Peter, the Apostle and first Pope). The monks of the reform he began with Rutsky are known since 1932 as the Basilians of St Josaphat.

The prayer to St Josaphat: the collect of his feast

The Mass of St Josaphat in the Missal of 1962 is proper. Its collect is taken almost word for word from Our Lord's words on the Good Shepherd and from St John: "The good shepherd giveth his life for his sheep" (John x. 11, Douay), and "we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren" (1 John iii. 16).

Collect, 14 November

Excita, quǽsumus, Dómine, in Ecclésia tua Spíritum, quo replétus beátus Jósaphat Martyr et Póntifex tuus ánimam suam pro óvibus pósuit: ut, eo intercedénte, nos quoque eódem Spíritu moti ac roboráti, ánimam nostram pro frátribus pónere non vereámur. Per Dóminum nostrum Jesum Christum, Fílium tuum: qui tecum vivit et regnat in unitáte ejúsdem Spíritus Sancti Deus, per ómnia sǽcula sæculórum. Amen.

Stir up in Thy Church, we beseech Thee, O Lord, the Spirit with which blessed Josaphat, Thy Martyr and Bishop, was filled when he laid down his life for his sheep: that, by his intercession, we also, moved and strengthened by the same Spirit, may not fear to lay down our life for our brethren. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the same Holy Ghost, God, world without end. Amen.

Secret

Clementíssime Deus, múnera hæc tua benedictióne perfunde, et nos in fide confírma: quam sanctus Jósaphat Martyr et Póntifex tuus, effúso sánguine, asséruit. Per Dóminum nostrum.

Most merciful God, pour Thy blessing upon these gifts, and confirm us in the faith which holy Josaphat, Thy Martyr and Bishop, upheld by the shedding of his blood. Through our Lord.

Postcommunion

Spíritum, Dómine, fortitúdinis hæc nobis tríbuat mensa cœléstis: quæ sancti Jósaphat Mártyris tui atque Pontíficis vitam pro Ecclésiæ honóre júgiter áluit ad victóriam. Per Dóminum nostrum.

May this heavenly table, O Lord, give us the Spirit of fortitude, which unceasingly fed the life of holy Josaphat, Thy Martyr and Bishop, unto victory for the honour of the Church. Through our Lord.

The Introit sings Gaudeamus omnes in Domino, "Let us all rejoice in the Lord, keeping festival in honour of blessed Josaphat, Martyr, at whose passion the angels rejoice"; the Epistle is Hebrews v. 1-6 on the high priest "called by God, as Aaron was"; the Gospel is the Good Shepherd, John x. 11-16.

St Josaphat's feast day: 14 November, or 12 November?

He died on 12 November, which in the calendar of 1962 is the feast of Pope St Martin I; his own feast, extended to the whole Church by Leo XIII, is kept on 14 November. In the calendar of 1962 it is a feast of the third class, with red vestments. You can find it in our traditional Catholic calendar of 1962.

In the reform of the calendar promulgated in 1969, his memorial was moved to 12 November, the day of his death. The Eastern Catholics of his own tradition keep him on 12 November as well, or on the corresponding day of the Julian calendar. Both dates honour the same martyr.

What is St Josaphat the patron saint of?

The Church has given St Josaphat no formal list of patronages. He is venerated above all as the martyr and heavenly protector of the unity of the Church, of the union of the Eastern Churches with Rome, and of the Greek-Catholic Ukrainians and Belarusians, the faithful of his own Church. This is why so many churches founded by Ukrainian, Polish and other Eastern European immigrants bear his name, from the Ukrainian Catholic cathedrals of North America to the Basilica of St Josaphat in Milwaukee, built by Polish immigrants. Those who pray for the return of separated Christians to Catholic unity, a subject our comparison Catholic vs Orthodox explains, have in him a natural intercessor.

St Josaphat and the "Buddha" legend: not the same Josaphat

Many people searching "St Josaphat" find the story of Barlaam and Josaphat, and the confusion is understandable. That is a different figure altogether. Barlaam and Josaphat is a medieval Christian romance about an Indian prince, Josaphat, converted by the hermit Barlaam; it was enormously popular in the Middle Ages, and the two entered the Roman Martyrology on 27 November. Scholars have long recognized that the story of the prince is a Christian reworking of the legend of the Buddha, which reached Europe through Arabic and Greek versions. Barlaam and Josaphat never had a feast in the Roman Missal, and nothing in the life of Josaphat Kuntsevych has any connection with them. Josaphat was simply the name he received when he became a monk; beyond the name, the two have nothing in common.

So: the "Josaphat of India" of the legend is a literary figure; St Josaphat of Polotsk is a historical bishop, killed on a known day, in a known town, in the seventeenth century.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who was St Josaphat?

St Josaphat Kuntsevych (c. 1580-1623) was a Ruthenian monk of the Byzantine rite, abbot at Vilna and archbishop of Polotsk, who worked for the union of his Church with Rome and was killed for it at Vitebsk on 12 November 1623.

How did St Josaphat die?

A mob broke into his house at Vitebsk on 12 November 1623. He went out to meet them, asking them to spare his servants; he was struck with a halberd, shot, and his body was thrown into the river Dvina.

What religion was St Josaphat?

He was a Catholic of the Byzantine rite, a Greek-Catholic (Ruthenian) monk and bishop: fully Catholic, in communion with the Pope, while celebrating the Eastern liturgy in Church Slavonic.

When was St Josaphat born?

At Vladimir in Volhynia, about 1580. Butler gives 1580 or 1584; the Breviary says he died in his forty-third year, which points to 1580.

When is the feast of St Josaphat?

On 14 November in the calendar of 1962. Since the 1969 reform, the memorial is kept on 12 November, the day of his death.

What did St Josaphat do?

He reformed monastic life, restored discipline and charity in a ruined diocese, defended the rights of the Byzantine rite, preached tirelessly for unity with the See of Peter, and finally laid down his life for it.

Is St Josaphat the Buddha?

No. The Josaphat of the medieval legend of Barlaam and Josaphat, which echoes the story of the Buddha, is a literary figure. St Josaphat Kuntsevych is a historical archbishop of the seventeenth century, canonized in 1867.

The Iter Fidei app follows the calendar of 1962 day by day, with the Roman Missal and the Breviary in Latin and English, so you can pray the Mass of St Josaphat on his feast. Join early access here.

Sources. Alban Butler, Lives of the Saints, 14 November (St Josaphat, Archbishop of Polotsk, Martyr). Roman Breviary (edition before 1960), 14 November, lessons of the second nocturn (in the Breviary of 1962 this third-class feast has a single, contracted lesson). Roman Missal (1962), Proper of Saints, 14 November. Holy Bible, Douay-Rheims version, John x. 11; 1 John iii. 16; Hebrews v. 1-6.