Josaphat Kuncewicz was born of noble Catholic parents at Vladimir in Volhynia. When a child, as he was listening to his mother telling him about the Passion of Christ, a dart issued from the image of Jesus crucified and wounded him in the heart. Set on fire with the love of God, he began to devote himself with such zeal to prayer and other works of piety, that he was the admiration and the model of his older companions. At the age of 20 he became a monk under the Rule of Saint Basil and made wonderful progress in evangelical perfection. He went barefoot even in the severe winter of that country. He never ate meat, drank wine only when obliged by obedience, and wore a rough hair-shirt until his death. Tho flower of his chastity, which he had vowed in early youth to the Virgin Mother of God, he preserved unspotted. He soon became so renowned for virtue and learning that in spite of his youth he was made superior of the monastery of Byten.
Soon afterwards he became archimandrite of Vilna, and lastly, much against his will, but to the great joy of Catholics, he was chosen Archbishop of Polock. In this dignity he relaxed nothing of his former manner of life and had nothing so much at heart as the divine service and the salvation of the sheep entrusted to him. He energetically defended Catholic faith and unity, and laboured to the utmost of his power to bring back schismatics and heretics to communion with the See of blessed Peter. The Sovereign Pontiff and the plenitude of his power he never ceased to defend, both by preaching and by writings full of piety and learning, against the most shameless calumnies and errors of the wicked. He vindicated episcopal rights, and restored ecclesiastical possessions which had been seized by laymen. Incredible was the number of heretics he won back to the bosom of Mother Church, and the words of the Popes bear witness how greatly he promoted the union of the Greek and Latin churches. His revenues were entirely expended in restoring the beauty of God’s house, in building dwellings for consecrated virgins, and in other pious works. So bountiful was he to the poor, that, on one occasion having nothing with which to supply the needs of a certain widow, he ordered his Omophorion or episcopal pallium to be pawned.
The great progress made by the Catholic faith so stirred up the hatred of wicked men against the soldier of Christ that they determined to put him to death. He knew what was threatening him and foretold it when preaching to the people. As he was making his pastoral visitation at Vitebsk, the murderers broke into his house, striking and wounding all whom they found. Josaphat meekly went to meet them, and accosted them kindly, saying: “My little children, why do you strike my servants? If you have any complaint against me, here I am.” Hereupon they rushed on him, overwhelmed him with blows, pierced him with their spears, and at length despatched him with an axe and threw his body into the river. This took place on the twelfth of November 1623, in the forty-third year of his age. His body surrounded with a miraculous light was rescued from the waters. The martyr’s blood won a blessing first of all for his murderers for, being condemned to death, they nearly all abjured their schism and repented of their crime. As the death of this great bishop was followed by many miracles, Pope Urban VIII granted him the honours of beatification. On the third of the Calends of July 1867 when celebrating the centenary of the Princes of the Apostles, Pius IX. in the Vatican Basilica, in presence of the College of Cardinals, and of about 500 Patriarchs, Metropolitans and Bishops of every rite, assembled from all parts of the world, solemnly enrolled among the Saints this great defender of the Church’s unity, who was the first Oriental to be thus honoured. Pope Leo extended his Mass and Office to the universal Church.
Dom Prosper Guéranger:
Josaphat Kuncewicz, contemporary with Saint Francis de Sales and Saint Vincent de Paul, might have been taken for a Greek monk of the eleventh century, or an ascetic of the Thebaid. A stranger to the intellectual culture of the West, he knew only the liturgical books and sacred texts used in his own church. As a priest, an archimandrite, a reformer of his Order of Saint Basil, and lastly as Archbishop, he combated all his life against the consequences of the schism of Photius, and closed the struggle by culling the palm of martyrdom. Yet all this took place in the heart of Europe, in the countries then subject to Catholic Poland during the reign of the most pious of its kings. How is this mystery to be explained?
Immediately after the Mongolian invasions, Poland received into her arms, rather than conquered, the Ruthenian nation, that is to say the Slavs of the Greek rite from the Dnieper and the Dwina, who had formed around their capital and religious metropolis, Kiev, the nucleus of the power now known as Russia. Had she granted a participation in her own national life to these brethren separated from, but not enemies to, the Roman unity, who came to her full of confidence in her strength and her justice, Poland would have secured the triumph of the Catholic cause, and her own dominion throughout Slavonia. The union of the newcomers with the Roman Pontiff, which a little more political insight and religious zeal might have brought about in the fourteenth century, was not concluded until l595. This was the union of Brzeso. By the compact signed in this little town of Lithuania, the metropolitan of Kiev and the other Greek bishops declared that they returned to the communion of the holy Apostolic See. Being the spiritual superiors of half the nation, they thus completed the union of the three peoples, Ruthenian, Lithuanian and Polish, then subject to Sigismund III. Now, a religious reform, even if decreed by a council, does not become a reality until men of God, true apostles, and if need be martyrs, come forward to consummate it. This was the vocation of Saint Josaphat, the apostle and martyr of the Union of Brzesc. What he did not himself carry out was completed by his disciples. A century of glory was secured to the nation, and its political ruin was delayed for two hundred years.
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“Stir up, O Lord, we beseech you, in your Church the Spirit with which the blessed Josaphat your Martyr and Pontiff was filled.” Thus prays our Mother today, and the Gospel likewise points to her desire of obtaining pastors like you, O holy Bishop! The sacred text speaks of the false shepherd who flees at first sight of the wolf, but the Homily which explains it in the Night Office, brands equally with the title of hireling the keeper who, though he does not flee, suffers the enemy unresisted to work havoc in the fold. May the divine Shepherd, whom you imitated to the end, even to laying down your life for the sheep, live again in all those whom He calls, like Peter, to exercise a greater love.
Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:
At Heraclea in Thrace, the birthday of the holy martyrs Clementinus, Theodotus and Philomenus.
At Alexandria, St. Serapion, martyr, whom the persecutors under the emperor Decius subjected to torments so cruel that all his limbs were disjointed. He became a martyr of Christ by being hurled down from the upper part of his house.
At Troyes in France, St. Venerandus, martyr, under the emperor Aurelian.
Also in France, the holy virgin Veneranda, who received the crown of martyrdom under the emperor Antoninus and the governor Asclepiades.
At Gangres in Paphlagonia, St. Hypatius, bishop, who on his way home from the great council of Nice, was attacked with stones by the Novatian heretics, and died a martyr.
At Algiers in Africa, blessed Serapion, of the Order of Our Blessed Lady of Ransom. For the redemption of the faithful in captivity and the preaching of the Christian faith, he was the first of his Order to deserve the palm of martyrdom by being crucified and cut to pieces.
At Emesa, the passion of many holy women, who were barbarously tortured and massacred under Mady, a savage Arabian chief.
At Bologna, St. Jucundus, bishop and confessor.
In Ireland, St. Lawrence, bishop of Dublin.
And in other places, many other holy martyrs, confessors and virgins.
Thanks be to God.
