www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life The Christian East & West St. Josaphat

I heard a homily yesterday by a Latin priest in which St. Josaphat was held up as a martyr for Christian unity. Yet, I understand he is not on the Chaldean calendar. How is he viewed today by Eastern Catholics? by the Orthodox?

Would the Orthodox kill him today? (kidding)

Fr. J.

Father - not all of the Eastern saints are on Eastern Calendars. Unless I am mistaken, for example, the Maronite saints (Ss. Maron, Rafqa, Charbel & Co.) are not on the Ruthenian Calendar, and I don't think that ours have made it to theirs...

How is hew viewed today? Opinions run the whole gamut.

Fr. J.,

As I understand it, many ROs regard Josephat Kuncevic as a criminal and an enemy of God.

This is mostly due to an incident in which he literally 'called in the troops' on a group of 'separatists' (or faithful Orthodox, depending on who's telling the story) who were occupying a parish church. He had done this before without incident, but in this particular case it 'got ugly'--the people resisted and the soldiers used force. Just how many people were killed or wounded I don't know, but just the thought of something like this happening is horrible.

Since the Roman Church canonized him, they must have been satisfied that he repented of the incident.

The UGCC honors him as their own. I don't know about the other EC churches.


Peace,
Deacon Richard

Everything I have ever heard or read about Josaphat Kuntsevich is highly, highly negative.

Sorry, but there have been some very negative things posted about St. Josaphat on the internet. I don;t know how true they are and I don't know the story behind his canonisation.

Actually, the canonization of St. Josaphat was not at the time popular with the Greek-Catholics; they regarded it as a Polish matter and were paying little attention. It was the Basilians of the Dobromyl reform who created the Josaphat bandwagon and climbed aboard. John-Paul HImka (University of Edmonton) tells part of the story in his book on nationalism and Greek-Catholicism in Western Ukraine in the second half of the nineteenth century.

Fr. Serge

I recently asked a number of friends and fellow EC's about Josaphat's persecution of married priests. It was clarified for me, thankfully, that he was probably trying to reform the practice among monks, who never had the tradition of being married, or of married men who became priests, then wanted to marry again, which is not allowed. It sounds to me like Josaphat was largely caught in a terrible crossfire of the times between Orthodox Rus who wanted to reunite with Rome and those who didn't. Feelings on this issue ran very deep. It seems as if he worked for unification, but couldn't help getting into trouble with people on both sides of the issue. Peacemakers are often punished by both the left and the right.

I have to agree 100% with Fr. Serge here. the whole Josaphat affair is considered to be a Polish issue. Ukrainian Orthodox always use this Josaphat as an example of a Catholic who persuecuted the Orthodox. The sooner his exploiys are forgotten the better for ecumenism.
John-Paul Himka is from a Ukrainian Catholic (Galician even) background and his works are well researched and balanced.

For many, the smoking gun was a letter Roman Catholic Chancellor Leo Sapiha wrote to St Josephat, accusing him of murder, and other forms of oppression against the Orthodox in his area. Sapiha however, never bothered to investigate the claims and accusations that were brought to him by St Josaphat's accusers, something the Saint informed him of in his reply. After his death, numerous Orthodox, Protestants and Jews vouched for St Josaphat's saintly character.

That is mere speculation, not historical fact. The Orthodox have remained consistent in condemning Josaphat. He is a matter of contenion, and not at all a symbol of unity.
The laity and the kozaks refended and remained loyal to the Orthodox Church.
Again I encourage you to read Prof. Humka's book for the potical background of the Polish support for Josaphat.

It is a matter of contention, just as I imagine St. Job of Pochaev or St. Athanasius of Brest would be for Catholics.

One thing I don't think I've ever seen is a Rusyn Greek Catholic parish named for Josaphat. There may be one, but I haven't seen it.

Not here in the US anyway, I don't know about Europe. The Ukrainian Catholic Cathedrals in Parma and Edmonton are, as are several Latin parishes in the US. The one in Milwaukee is a Basilica.

There is an RC parish - St. Josaphat (old Polish parish) in Detroit. I did a double take the first time I saw it from the expressway (where the lettering on the building is clearly visible)...

Did some research, found out that is where the TLM in Detroit was offered under the indult system....

That's kinda ironic to me... on a few levels.

Interesting thread.

Happy St. Gregory Palamas day to all.

Good points, Tim - the acceptance of Kyr Meletius of the Union after St. Josaphat's death as well as other testimonies, both Orthodox and Catholic are quite in favor of his sanctity. Such is the way when saints become involved in their lifetime in certain polemic activities - it never seems to be divorced from controversy from either perspective as Orest correctly pointed out with his examples of Sts. Job and Athanasius.

While some of the latinizing Basilians of later times used him as justification for their actions, it appears he was quite adamant in observing a more traditional monastic life amongst his own monks of the time.