GIOSAFAT, Saint. - Archbishop, martyr, born in 1580 at Vladimir in Volhynia, died 12 Nov. 1623 at Vitebsk.
St. G. (born Giovanni Kuncewicz) came from a noble but impoverished “Orthodox” family. He worked as a clerk for a merchant in Vilna, where he adhered to the Church Union concluded at Brest. In 1604 he took the monastic habit under the name G. in the Basilian monastery of the Most Holy Trinity at Vilna, as the first novice of the first Basilian monastery opened after the Union. In 1609 he was ordained priest and became superior of the new monasteries at Byten, Żyrovice, and finally at Vilna.
On 12 Nov. 1617 the Uniate metropolitan Veljamin Rutskij, his fellow novice, consecrated him bishop of Vitebsk and appointed him as coadjutor to Gedeone Brolnich, archbishop of Polotsk, whom he succeeded the following year. He devoted himself to reforming the clergy and instructing the people with such success that he aroused the hatred of the dissenters led by the schismatic archbishop Melezio Smotryckij. During a pastoral visit to Vitebsk, the mob, incited by schismatic demagogues, attacked Archbishop G. in his palace and killed him with clubs and axes.
His violated body was thrown into the Dvina River. Recovered, it was buried in the cathedral of Polotsk. He was beatified on 16 May 1643 and canonized on 29 June 1867, just as persecution was raging in Russia against Eastern-rite Catholics. Because of wars, his body was later transferred first to Biała (Poland) and then to Vienna, to the church of St. Barbara of the Uniates. The martyrdom and cult of St. G. greatly contributed to the spread and consolidation of the Union of Brest. His feast is celebrated on 12 Nov.