JOSAPHAT, Saint. - Archbishop, martyr, b. in 1580 at Vladimir in Volhynia, d. on 12 November 1623 at Vitebsk.
St. G. (whose family name was John Kuncewicz) was born into a noble but impoverished "Orthodox" family. He worked as a merchant's clerk in Vilna, where he adhered to the ecclesiastical union concluded at that time 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 a priest and became superior of the new monasteries at Byten, at Żyrovice and finally at Vilna.
On 12 November 1917 the united metropolitan Veljamin Rutskij, his fellow monk, consecrated him bishop of Vitebsk and appointed him coadjutor of Gedeon Brolnichi, archbishop of Polotsk, whom he succeeded the following year. He devoted himself to the reform of the clergy and the instruction of the people with such great success that he aroused the hatred of the dissidents led by the schismatic archbishop Meletius Smotryckij. During a pastoral visit to Vitebsk the crowd, incited by schismatic demagogues, attacked Archbishop G. in his palace and killed him with blows of a club and an axe.
His outraged body was thrown into the Dvina river. When it was found, it was buried in the cathedral of Polotsk. G. was beatified on 16 May 1643 and canonized on 29 June 1867, precisely while the persecution against Catholics of the Eastern rite was raging in Russia. His body, because of the wars, was transferred first to Biala (Poland) and then to Vienna, to the church of St. Barbara of the united faithful. The martyrdom and the cult of St. G. contributed greatly to the spread and consolidation of the ecclesiastical union of Brest. His feast is celebrated on 12 November.
Bibliography4 works
Giuseppe Olir