RUTSKIJ, JOSIF VELJAMIN. — Basilian, metropolitan of Vilna, born at Ruta (White Russia) in 1574, died at Vilna in 1637. During a journey through Germany, at Würzburg, he converted from Calvinism to Catholicism and later entered the Greek College in Rome. At the express desire of Pope Clement VIII, R. adopted the Byzantine-Slavonic rite, although for a long time he hesitated to be ordained a priest.
By a special design of Providence, in 1609 he entered the recently founded Basilian monastery of Vilna; he soon became its archimandrite and then, in 1613, metropolitan for those united with Rome. In this capacity he worked, though without success, for the establishment of schools for the laity and a seminary for the clergy. When the schismatics established a new hierarchy (1621), R. sought to promote a «second union» with them, but again in vain. He did, however, succeed in reforming the Order of the Basilians, making them a supra-diocesan clerical order exempt from the bishops and the metropolitan. Thus he became, certainly without realizing it, the creator of the «Ruthenian» rite as it still exists today. The memory of R. is deeply venerated among his fellow countrymen.
Pope Urban VIII called him «the Athanasius of the Ruthenian Church».
Alberto Maria Ammann