Ukraine Celebrates St. Josaphat, Martyr for the Unity of the Church

June 25 will be an important date for the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church: a national pilgrimage to Rome is being organized for the 150th anniversary of the canonization of St. Josaphat KKuntsevych (1584-1623), bishop and martyr.

For the occasion, the Holy Father has granted permission for the faithful to celebrate the Divine Liturgy in the Vatican Basilica on the Altar of the Chair. The relics of St. Josaphat, who was the first saint of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, are venerated in St. Peter’s Basilica.

The celebrations will begin on June 24, in Rome, in the church of Santa Sophia, with papal Vespers, presided over by Patriarch Sviatoslav Shevchuk, Major Archbishop of Kiev and the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. A concert of sacred music will then be given by the seminarian’s choir of the Ivano-Frankivsk Theological Seminary.

The next day, Mass will be celebrated in the morning, and the faithful will then assist at the Angelus recited by Pope Francis at noon in St. Peter’s Square. In a press release, the Ukrainian Church invites “Ukrainians living in their country and abroad to participate in the pilgrimage to the relics of St. Josaphat, martyr for the unity of the Church and the people”, adding that the example of this holy martyr “is still pertinent” in “promoting Christian unity and remaining respectful of the representatives of other confessions”.

Indeed, ever since the Balamand Declaration on June 23, 1993, “Uniatism” or the return to the unity of the Catholic Church has been abandoned, and is now considered a method belonging to the past. In its 22nd article, the declaration goes so far as to banish any idea of conversion: “Pastoral activity in the Catholic Church, Latin as well as Oriental, no longer aims at having the faithful of one Church pass over to the other; that is to say, it no longer aims at proselytizing among the Orthodox.” Modern ecumenism has once again left its mark, with complete disregard for the blood shed by St. Josaphat.

In Ukraine, the Priestly Society of St. Josaphat continues the fight for the Faith and remains faithful to the Tradition of the Church.

Born of parents separated from Catholic unity, young Josaphat Kuntsevych was an exceptionally pious child from the earliest age. He followed the splendid Slavic liturgy, but sought the truth and the glory of God above all things; thus, while still very young, and regardless of human considerations, he turned to the one Church founded on Peter.

He entered the monastic life at the age of twenty, and became archimandrite of Vilna, then archbishop of Polotsk (in what is now Belarus), where he worked zealously for the union of his fellow countrymen with Peter’s Chair, seeking everywhere every means possible to promote or strengthen this union. A true apostle of the union between the Orientals and the Roman Church, he was finally killed out of hatred by some schismatics in Vitebsk, in 1623, at the age of 43.

He was canonized in 1867 by Pope Pius IX, who placed his feast in the universal Church on November 14. He is the patron saint of Ukrainian Catholics.