www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life The Christian East & West Happy St. Josaphat's Day (NS)

I received a pleasant surprise this morning. I sometimes attend an early morning Roman-rite Mass at a church near my office (old St. Joseph's in Topeka, nice photo at http://members.cox.net/ksregphotos/St_Joseph\'s_Catholic_Church_Topeka.html ).

This morning the priest, who preaches every morning (and hears confessions every morning) gave one of the most uplifting sermons I have ever heard about St. Josaphat, his contributions, and the importance of the Eastern Catholic Churches. I've rarely heard better even from Greek Catholic clergy.

I was literally in tears. After communion was the real shocker. He got up to say the post-Communion proper, and said "by the way, we have someone here who is Eastern Catholic of the same ritual tradition as St. Josaphat", he called out my name, and had me stand up, and directed the people to get to know me and our tradition. After Mass several came over to ask questions.

This would likely not have happened even 50 years ago. I felt compelled to share that considering this day and all the discussions about communion recently.

St. Josaphat, pray to God for us.

What a wonderful start to the day

Truly God moves in His own mysterious way .

Now let's hope that because of that incident more bridges will be built and more folk will come and appreciate the joys of the East .

Indeed some may hopefully want more than that - but in God's time - not ours


I echo your prayer today

Anhelyna

I also prayer for the re establishment of Communion between the Churches of the East and the West and commemorated the Patriarch of Constantinople in the Liturgy.
It was a wonderful reading in the liturgy this morning from Ephesians on the unity of the Church.
Mir,
Stephanos I
(Through the intercession of St Josaphat, O Saviour, Save our Souls.)

God bless that Latin priest at St. Joseph and our Forum's Fr. Stephanos!

Amado

I have to add that my parish had a similar experience this morning as we celebrated the martyrdom of St. Josaphat. Our pastor usually gives a long introduction to the life of the saint of the day prior to Liturgy. He also tied St. Josaphat to the readings and encouraged those present to pray fervently for the reunion of us and the Orthodox Church.

I wouldn't have thought to have heard such a thing just a few years ago, but there is progress.

(Maybe it has to do with the fact that I write or rewrite all the Prayers of the Faithful for our parish and have been inserting a petition for this very intention at random for the past eleven years. Something like subliminal suggestion. )

Randy,

I cannot believe it! I have to say that I got goosebumps all over when I read this. That is awesome!

How nice of that Roman priest. I can't say it enough: how cool!!!

Thanks for sharing this with us.

SPDundas
Deaf Byzantine

Thats great to hear.

We're making progress!

With all due respect, according to http://www.orthodoxinfo.com/ecumenism/vatican_russia.aspx and http://www.orthodoxinfo.com/ecumenism/josaphat_malevolent.aspx,
it seems that "St Josaphat" might have been a vicious persecutor of the Orthodox Christians, which provoked some of them to murder him.

I have no intention of offending any Eastern Catholics on this Forum, but I'd like to know the views of the members of this Forum regarding the above-mentioned articles.

I,

your second link doesn't work, because the comma following it got incorporated into the url. The corrected link is:

http://www.orthodoxinfo.com/ecumenism/josaphat_malevolent.aspx

I will agree with you that Josaphat is a very controversial figure but leave it to my brethren of the Slavic Churches to discuss his virtues and failings. I would note that the site from which your citations are drawn is itself controversial among some of the Orthodox community, which is not to say that you could not have found criticism of him on more "accepted" sites as well.

Many years,

Neil

Dear I,

St Josaphat was a controversial figure because he dedicated his life to bringing Orthodox into communion with Rome.

And he brought a good number - especially after his death.

Orthodox polemics against him tend to be rather, well, polemical. However, there are Orthodox, like Schmemann and Scherbakivsky who have a more restrained approach.

St Josaphat was very much "Orthodox in communion with Rome." He adhered to the purity of the Byzantine Rite (he was Orthodox from Volyn, a bastion of Orthodoxy in history in Western Ukraine).

The miraculous Cross (three bar Orthodox) before which he prayed (and is now in an Orthodox Cathedral) and his other devotions demonstrate this.

He would often go out to argue and discuss theology with Orthodox to get them to join with Rome by adhering to the Uniate Metropolitan of Kyiv. And St Josaphat was incorrigible - he would go out to witness to Jews and others to bring them to the Catholic Church as well . . . A real number, that one . . .

When he visited the Kyivan Caves Lavra, the monks, when they saw the "Soul Snatcher" or their nickname for him, attacked him with their fists.

He calmly responded by saying he didn't come to cause trouble but to pray at the shrine of the Kyivan Caves Saints. The monks then let him in, guardedly, and went off to hunt. St Josaphat turned around and said, "And where is it written in the Rules of St Basil that monks are allowed to hunt?"

The Archimandrite called everyone to the Trapeza or dining hall to introduce them to the evil "soul snatcher."

After a period of yelling and fist-waving, Josaphat took out their own liturgical books and showed them references to St Peter etc.

After several hours of discussion and some food, the group had become jovial. The monks, although not willing to become Catholic, no longer attacked Josaphat. They even escorted him to the outskirts of Kyiv so that no harm might come to him.

When Josaphat was martyred and lay in state, Orthodox came to see their evil enemy and noticed that his body was not only in tact, but had the odour of sanctity etc. and this according to ORTHODOX eye-witnesses. They even kissed his hand as he lay in his coffin/ark.

Orthodox came into communion with Rome afterwards as the murder of Josaphat was too much for many to bear.

Josaphat's opponent was Archbishop Meletius Smotritsky who was so guilty about his possible role in Josaphat's murder that he himself became a Uniate, although he sometimes denied he was when surrounded by angry crowds.

When Meletius died, as a Uniate, his hand grasped the document of union with his signature and no one could pull it from his lifeless hand!

The Cause for Meletius' beatification was introduced at Rome and an icon was written of him - his local veneration began along with that of Josaphat. Meletius was called the "Saul and Paul of the Union of Brest." To this day, Meletius is EQUALLY honoured by Catholics and Orthodox who EACH claim him as their own. The Orthodox tend to interpret his uniatism as an expression of personal guilt over Josaphat's death etc.

Josaphat became so hated by the Orthodox that his very name became "verboten" to use and, instead, the version of "Joasaph" took over - as one Orthodox priest related to me.

But I know Orthodox priests, not in union with Rome, who consider Josaphat to be a saint, one who actually keeps his icon (well hidden) among his other icons.

But the Uniate Metropolitans of Kyiv have always historically avoided confrontation with the Orthodox over the public cult of St Josaphat, as did Met. Andrew Sheptytsky.

The Orthodox too have their St Athanasius of Brest, murdered by the Latins.

St Athanasius of Brest and St Josaphat of Polotsk - Hieromartyrs of Christ, pray unto God for us! Holy Confessor and Hierarch Meletius of Polotsk - pray unto God for us!

Alex

Bringing Orthodox into "communion with Rome" at that period meant bringing those "dissidents and schismatics" back to the fold and the pressure that was used to do that. I am glad that we have advanced past the Counter-Reformation mentality in that aspect. I am sure most of us would agree with that.

Dear Brian,

You are more than correct.

But, if you are fair, and I know that you are, we must also say that the Orthodox then looked upon RC's and BC's as heretics etc.

The "uniates" were particularly derided not only as heretics, but as traitors to Orthodoxy (which meant also to their East Slavic nationality).

For example, if we lived at that time and you asked an East Slav what his nationality was, he or she would tell you "Orthodox."

And that meant you weren't Polish RC.

In his diaires, the Orthodox Martyr Athanasius of Brest refers to the Union of Brest as the "damned union, hated of God!"

St Alexis Toth, closer to our times, referred to EC missionaries in the U.S. as "jerks" - I've read that myself.

St Josaphat, contrary to the official (and perhaps even understandable) propaganda against him at the time, was very gentle with converts.

One man, who used to argue with him about union with Rome, decided to actually go to Josaphat to be received into that union.

He wrote in his diary, "As I and my friends approached his house, Josaphat saw us and came out to us knowing why we were coming and without asking us, therefore, the reason. He took me by the arm, and with tears in his eyes, said, 'Thank you, Heavenly Father, for bringing these back to the fold.'"

Both sides believed they were the one true Church.

Both sides still do, with varying "textures" of being adamant.

Alex

But thankfully, Alex, both Churches do not now have the means of forcing consciences as happened during the Counter-Reformation and tragically, the cooperation of the Russian Orthodox Patriarchate in the late 40's with the Soviets in the suppression of the Greek Catholic Church as the admirable Bishop +Kallistos points out in the revised edition of "The Orthodox Church".

Brian, that is an excellent point. It is important also to note that Bishop +Kallistos took a great deal of flack from some Orthodox for revising his "Orthodox Church" to reflect his criticism of the collusion of the MP with the Soviets.

Alex, also well put. St. Josaphat made it a serious duty to be completely faithful to the Byzantine tradition he had received from Orthodoxy, to the letter of the articles of union, which exhorted practicing the faith as handed down "by the Greek fathers".

Unfortunately he has been used in the last two hundred years or so by many of our own latinizers internally as the champion of their latinizing agendas, for dying basically as a Roman. Poor souls, they don't understand St. Josaphat's history, spirituality, or mission.

Both Alexis Toth and St. Josaphat were men of faith who did what they felt compelled and guided to do by the Holy Spirit. May the prayers of both intercede for us.