Josaphat Kuntsevych

Who they were

Ivan Kuntsevych was born around 1580 to a noble Ruthenian family and raised in the Orthodox tradition. Sent to Vilnius to learn trade, he studied far more widely. In the years after the Union of Brest (1596), when the Orthodox bishops of the Kyiv metropolia entered unity with Rome keeping their Byzantine rite, he joined the Basilian monks at Holy Trinity in Vilnius in 1604, taking the name Josaphat, convinced by the Fathers of the Church that unity was possible.

Ordained in 1609, he became archimandrite of Vilnius and in 1617 bishop, then Archbishop of Polotsk. He gave his income to the poor, visited and supported his priests, held yearly synods and worked to make his people love the Church and the Pope. At Vitebsk, on a pastoral visit, a mob opposed to the union broke into his house on 12 November 1623. He went out to them: 'My children, why are you striking my household? If you have something against me, here I am.' They killed him and threw his body into the Daugava. He was 43.

The miracles

Many miracles were attributed to him, and his killers were converted. His body, found incorrupt, now lies in St Peter's under the altar of St Basil.

Why that counted as sanctity

Josaphat gave his life for the unity of Christ's Church, loving his people and meeting his murderers with the words of a father.