Nov-12 Feast of the Martyr St Josaphat
November 12: Feast of the Martyr St Josaphat St Josaphat was martyred on November 12, 1623 bringing about unity between the Orthodox and Catholic Churches. His story should serve to inspire us in this day and age when the Church of Christ is more divided than ever. In 1054, a formal split called a schism took place between the Eastern Church (centred in Constantinople) and the Western Church (centered in Rome). In 1595-96 the Orthodox Metropolitan of Kiev and five other Orthodox bishops representing millions of Ruthenian faithful met in the city of Brest Litovsk and signed a declaration of their intention to enter into union with the Roman Catholic Church. Pope Clement VIII accepted their conversion from Orthodox to Catholicism, while allowing them to keep their Byzantine liturgical rites and traditions. St. Josaphat was born John Kuncevic about circa 1580 or 1584 in Vladimir, a Lithuanian village (then a part of the fiercely Catholic Polish Jagiellonian Dynasty), to ...