St. Josaphat Kunsevich

Since the Photian schism, the Greek Church and the Latin Church have made numerous attempts at full reconciliation with one another. Though some of these were resolved within the time of the crisis, others were not. One of the constant arguments against full unification with the Latins that the Greeks have held was over the issue of the filioque. The filioque was added to the Nicene Creed in the West in order initially to suppress Arian views on the nature of the Trinity and to re-emphasize the deity of Christ by affirming the procession of the Holy Spirit from the Father and the Son. Whereas in the East, this procession has been affirmed to be from the Father through the Son, but not from both the Father and the Son. This has led to different arguments over the nature of the Trinity in both Eastern and Western theology. Some theologians seem to make a bigger deal out of the issue than most and I am not experienced enough to comment. But the East has often times made villains out of supporters of the filioque in both the West and among its own ranks. One such villain was Michael Palaeologus whose efforts to forcibly compel the East to accept Latinization and acceptance of the filioque ultimately led to his being denied a Christian burial in the Orthodox Church. St. John Doukas III made efforts to harmonize with the Latins but resisted their efforts to impose Latinization. St. Stephen Milutin opposed with force the efforts of Michael Palaeologus. Most notorious was St. Mark of Ephesus who, upon seeing the Council of Florence would not result in the desired compromise, condemned the Latins.

But there persisted a faction in both the Latin Church and the Greek Church which desired unification and acceptance than the division. St. Josaphat Kunsevich led the unification efforts in the early 17th century. Josaphat was baptized into the Ruthenian Orthodox Church and was nothing but a tradesmen when the Union of Brest was signed by a group of Orthodox Christians desiring union with the Catholic Church. These Christians were opposed by the Greeks who believed that the Union of Brest fell short of unification requirements. The Union of Brest sustained and upheld Greek tradition to be a fully legitimate expression of the Catholic faith. It resolved the dispute with the filioque clause by not mandating that the Greeks accept anything regarding the procession that could not be found in Scriptures, essentially making the doctrine a matter of theologoumenon, theological opinion. The issue of Purgatory was also settled as a matter of pious speculative theology, as long as some sort of purgation was affirmed (which the Greeks did in the tradition of Toll Houses), then the opinion was considered orthodox. Finally, it enabled the Greek clergy to stay married, not bounding them to clerical celibacy, and upheld the rite of the Byzantine tradition as a valid liturgical rite.

The converts to the newly established Greek Catholic rite were only required to uphold the supremacy of the jurisdictional authority of the Pope. This was still a problematic issue among the fiercely Orthodox and when Josaphat became the Archbishop of Polotsk in 1618, these tempers flared. Josaphat's father desired him to be a councilman but Josaphat's interests were in religion. Josaphat was deeply religious himself and seeing the unification with Rome, desired to uphold that unity and defend the unification with Rome under the conditions of the Union of Brest. He entered into the Basilian Monastery in Vilna in 1604 and would be ordained to the priesthood in 1609. He would be elevated to the Episcopacy in 1617, being made the Bishop of Vitebsk. Finally, he would be the Archbishop of Polotsk. As Archbishop he pleaded and defended the unification of the Greek Catholics with the Latins.

But he had harsh critics among the Orthodox who rejected the unification. Riots broke out and the Orthodox opponents of unification resorted to mob violence. One such, a priest named Elias, had to be jailed for the trouble he caused. In October of 1623, Josaphat challenged the mobs. He stated, "Some of you people in Vitebsk want to kill me. Well, here I am, I have come here of my own free will. I am your shepherd and I should be happy to give my life for you. If it please God that I should die for unity under the earthly headship of Peter's succession, so be it. I am ready to die for truth." A riot was staged by the followers of the Orthodox priest and Josaphat's residence was broken into. They hacked and beat the bishop and they threw his body into the water. The body was retrieved the following Friday and interred at Baila in Podlesie.

King Sigmund would petition the Pope for the canonization of Josaphat. He would eventually be presented to the reliquary in the Church of St. Sophia. His remains were examined and while they found the vestments to be damaged by the water, the body remained in tact. His face broke out into sweat when it was touched. Though his beard and hair fell away and the vestments disintegrated upon touch, the body was found to be of a white color, soft to touch. In 1650, when the body was exposed yet again, blood flowed from it. It was determined that Josaphat was indeed incorrupt and he would be canonized in 1867 by Pope Leo XIII, the first Eastern Catholic saint to be canonized by the Pope since the unification in 1595-1596. St. Josaphat, pray for the unity of the Church! Amen.

Sources:

The Incorruptibles, Joan Carroll Cruz

"St. Josaphat Kunsevich: Who was St. Josaphat?", St. Josaphat Parish