St. Josaphat

Josaphat Kuntsevych is the first Eastern-rite Catholic saint to be formally canonized by Rome, and his martyrdom in 1623 represents one of the most dramatic episodes in the long and painful history of the Greek-Catholic church in Ukraine and Belarus. He was born around 1580 at Volodymyr in Volhynia, the son of a merchant, became a monk of the Basilian order at Vilnius, and rose rapidly within the Uniate church — the Greek-rite church in union with Rome that had been established by the Union of Brest in 1596 — eventually becoming Archbishop of Polotsk in what is now Belarus.

His archiepiscopate was spent trying to consolidate the union and to restore discipline to a church whose clergy were in serious disorder. The Orthodox opposition to the union was genuine and strong, fuelled by the political concerns of the Cossack nobility and by the resentment of clergy who found themselves required to acknowledge Roman primacy. A rival bishop, Meletius Smotritsky, worked systematically to undermine Josaphat's authority in the towns under his jurisdiction.

The final episode came at Vitebsk in 1623, where the opposition had been inflamed to the point of open hostility. A mob attacked the episcopal residence; when Josaphat came out to address them rather than flee, they attacked and killed him, throwing his body into the Dvina River. The body was recovered and translated to Biala, where miracles were immediately reported.

The theological question — the legitimacy of the Union of Brest itself and the proper relationship between the Eastern churches and Rome — is distinct from the personal holiness of the man who died in its defence. The archbishop who walked out to face the mob performed a genuine act of witness, and the canonization of 1867 by Pius IX was the Church's confirmation of that judgment.