RUTSKIJ, JOSIF VELJAMIN. - Basilian, metropolitan of Vilnius, b. at Ruta (White Russia) in 1574, d. at Vilnius in 1637. During a journey through Germany, at Würzburg, he was converted from Calvinism to Catholicism and later entered the Greek College in Rome. At the express wish of Pope Clement VIII, R. adopted the Byzantine-Slav rite, though for a long time he hesitated to be ordained priest.
By a special design of Providence, in 1609 he entered the recently founded Basilian monastery of Vilnius, soon became its archimandrite, and in 1613 metropolitan for those united to Rome. In this capacity he strove, though without success, to found 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 Basilians, transforming them into a clerical order exempt from the authority of bishops and the metropolitan. In so doing he became, certainly without realizing it, the originator of the “Ruthenian” rite as it exists today. The memory of R. is greatly venerated among his countrymen.
Pope Urban VIII called him “the Athanasius of the Ruthenian Church.”
Alberto Maria Ammann