Friday, November 12, 2021

Josaphat

 


Saint Josaphat

 

Also known as

Josaphat Kuncevyc

Jehoshaphat Kuncewycz

John Kunsevich

Josaphat Kuntsevych

Josaphat of Polotsk

Jozofat Kuncewicz



Memorial

 12 November


Profile

 Our Saint today was raised as a Ruthenian Orthodox nut.   In 1595 the Ruthenian church looked in the mirror and said “look at these dopey hats we’re wearing,” and rejoined the Church in Rome.     Josaphat felt a call to the religious life and so he turned down a business partnership and a marriage to his partner’s daughter to pursue it.  

 

He became a monk a priest in the Byzantine Rite Catholic Church taking the name  Josaphat.    As the East West union was still a hot button issue back then, and still today, Our Saint’s monastic superior, Samuel, never accepted the reunification, and actively fought against it.    You can still see these knuckleheads today…they’re the ones who turned their backs on Pope Saint John Paul II when he came to visit them in a spirit of Love and Fraternity back in the 1990’s.   And the Devil laughs.   

      

Josaphat learned of Samuel’s work, he understood the damage it was causing in the entire Eastern Catholic Church so he squealed on Samuel.    The archbishop of Kiev became furious, removed Samuel from his post, replacing him with Josaphat.

 

Josaphat was a famous preacher and great leader who believed unity was the best course of action and one The Master would want.  Through his work and belief he brought many Orthodox to the sensible hat side of Christendom.    This was all at a time when most religious, fearing interference with the locally developed liturgy and customs, did not want union with Rome.    

 

 With his teaching, clerical reform, and personal example Josaphat won the greater part of the Orthodox in Lithuania to the union. In needing to compromise where compromise was possible, and by being diplomatic and pastoral to all his actions were viewed by both East and West as subversive; neither side was really happy with him.  You can’t be everything for all.    

 

His piety and sincerity were very clear to everyone though; he was made Archbishop and as such attended the Diet of Warsaw in 1620.   A Diet is sort of a meeting it isn’t necessarily a way to restrict carbohydrates or fats.   Anyhoo, a bunch of Cossacks, set up an anti-Unity  bishop for each Unity one,  they spread the accusation that Josaphat had “gone Latin,” and that his followers would be forced to do the same, and placed a usurper on the archbishop‘s chair.

 

Like his secretary, Lincoln, told President Kennedy, not to go to Dallas, and Lincoln's secretary Kennedy told him not to go to the theater, many of his advisers told our Saint it was not a good idea to go speak to this controversy directly...Eschewing this advice, Josaphat went to the midst of this discontent in an effort to clarify things and to correct this misunderstanding.  

 

Late in 1623 a subversive, recalcitrant priest named Elias shouted insults at Josaphat from his own courtyard, and tried to force his way into the residence.    The Army, who was loyal to the King, who in turn was loyal to Josaphat, removed the heckler.     This caused a mob to form demanding the release of the trespassing priest.   As is still clearly demonstrated today, when mobs gather reason goes away, mob mentality takes over.   The senseless violent thugs invaded the residence, looking for store windows to smash in order to loot TV sets. 

 

 Josaphat insured the safety of his servants before trying, unsuccessfully, to get away himself, and was martyred, quite convincingly, by the mob.   He was struck in the head with a halberd, shot and beaten with staves then his lifeless bodine was thrown into the Dvina River; this all done by people in the name of Christianity, a Faith based on love.    Later on his remains were fished out and recovered.    His death was a shock to both sides of the dispute.   Anger cooled and some sanity was restored.   Five years after his death his body was exhumed and found to be incorrupt.   He was canonized by Pope Blessed Pius IX, the first Eastern saint canonized by Rome.  

 

Representation

chalice

crown

winged deacon

 

Readings

You people of Vitebsk want to put me to death. You make ambushes for me everywhere, in the streets, on the bridges, on the highways, and in the marketplace. I am here among you as a shepherd, and you ought to know that I would be happy to give my life for you. I am ready to die for the holy union, for the supremacy of Saint Peter, and of his successor the Supreme Pontiff. - Saint Josaphat

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