1. Josaphat Kuntsevych's death reflects the conflict between the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Eastern Catholic Churches that intensified after four Ruthenian Orthodox Church bishops transferred their allegiance from the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Constantinople to the Holy See, under the terms laid down by the 1439 Council of Florence, by signing the 1596 Union of Brest.
Archeparch Josaphat remains one of the best-known victims of anti-Catholic violence for his role in both personally accepting and very effectively spreading the Eastern Catholic Churches as a hieromonk and bishop, and was canonized in 1867 by Pope Pius IX as a saint and a martyr of the Catholic Church.
Josaphat Kuntsevych was born Ioann Kuntsevych in 1580 or 1584 in Volodymyr, Volhynian Voivodeship, in the Lesser Poland Province of the Polish Crown.
Josaphat Kuntsevych was baptized into a family associated with the Eastern Orthodox Church.
Rutsky supported the recent union with Rome, and under his influence Josaphat Kuntsevych grew interested in the Catholic Church.
In 1604, in his early 20s, Kuntsevych entered the Monastery of the Trinity of the Order of Saint Basil the Great in Vilnius, at which time he was given the religious name of Josaphat.
Josaphat Kuntsevych engaged in many acts of mortification of the flesh, such as praying overnight in the parish cemetery during the winter, while barefoot and deliberately underdressed, in order to offer up his suffering towards the salvation of souls.
Brother Josaphat Kuntsevych's believed, based on his own studies of history, the liturgical books, and many other sources, that the Union of Brest represented a return to the true roots and origins of the Christian East.
Josaphat Kuntsevych was so successful at arguing in favor of this point and persuading both Orthodox Christians and Ruthenian and Lithuanian Calvinists to convert to Eastern Catholicism, that his theological opponents dubbed him, "The soul-snatcher".
When Josaphat Kuntsevych was ordained to the diaconate, his regular services and labor for the Church had already begun.
In 1609, after private study under Jesuit Valentin Groza Fabricy, Josaphat Kuntsevych was ordained a priest by a Greek Catholic bishop.
Josaphat Kuntsevych went gladly as if it were a feast day.
Josaphat Kuntsevych subsequently became the hegumen of several monasteries.
Josaphat Kuntsevych's mercy was even more evident when he became Archbishop, so that one could say that his palace was like a market place and trading post for beggars.
Josaphat Kuntsevych faced the daunting task of bringing the local populace to accept union with Rome.
Josaphat Kuntsevych faced stiff opposition from the monks, who feared liturgical Latinisation of the Byzantine Rite as well as from widowed priests who had remarried in open violation of the Eastern Code of Canons.
One hit him on the head with a stick, another split it with an axe, and when Josaphat Kuntsevych fell, they started beating him.
At first Papovic viewed this behavior with displeasure, but Josaphat Kuntsevych gradually won such a position in his esteem that Papovic offered him his entire fortune and his daughter's hand.
Josaphat Kuntsevych slept on the bare floor, and chastised his body until the blood flowed.
Josaphat Kuntsevych's body was claimed to be incorrupt five years after his death.
Josaphat Kuntsevych was canonized on June 29,1867, by Pope Pius IX.
St Josaphat Kuntsevych is the patron saint of a number of Polish and Ukrainian churches and parishes in the United States and Canada, including:.
Josaphat Kuntsevych's canonization has been highly controversial among Ukrainian Orthodox population, mostly due to persecution of Orthodox practices incited by Josaphat Kuntsevych.