[Let us pray for unity between the Catholic and Orthodox Churches for which Saint Josaphat gave his life.]
If it is a unity based on the tactics of this so called saint, no Orthodox Catholic will join in prayer. It would be an insult to our Orthodox ancestors who suffered to remain in the Orthodox Catholic faith under this despot!
What amazes me is that the story changes in each version I read from Roman Catholic or Byzantine ARC's (automonous ritual churches). In some he was dragged out of his estate, while in others he was dragged out of his Church. The real story is when he came with his hoods to disrupt an outdoor Orthodox Liturgy the Orthodox finally had enough of his unchristian deeds.
He was killed and his body was thrown in the river. Some members of the ARC's under Rome even claim that his body was hacked before thrown in the river. Yet his body lays uncorrupted in Rome!
From your version we read -
http://www.stthomasirondequoit.com/SaintsAlive/id549.htm  [
John Kunsevich was born in 1580 to a prominent Catholic of the city of Vladimir. A thoughtful and devout young man, John entered a monastery in 1604, taking the name Josaphat.  He became noted for his holiness as a monk, and for his ability as a preacher.  Since there was so much opposition to reunion with Rome, Father Josaphat devoted much of his preaching to defending Catholic unity.  In 1617 he became archbishop of Polotsk.  Here he struggled manfully but successfully to bring about a reform among his clergy and laity.]
[Sometime later a gang entered his church.  Crying out, "Kill the papist," they shot the archbishop, crushed his skull, and threw his body into the river.]
Yet in the other RC version quoted in the first post it says -
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His father was a municipal counselor, and his mother known for her piety.
Raised in the Orthodox Ruthenian Church which, on 23 November 1595 in the Union of Brest, united with the Church of Rome. Trained as a merchant's apprentice at Vilna, he was offered partnership in the business, and marriage to his partner's daughter; feeling the call to religious life, he declined both. Monk in the Ukrainian Order of Saint Basil (Basilians) in Vilna at age 20 in 1604, taking the name brother Josaphat. Deacon. Ordained a Byzantine rite priest in 1609.
One has to wonder why this subject is reactivated after such a long time by a new member. You wouldn't be trolling by any chance. Are you aware what the Lithuanian Roman Catholic governer wrote about this man you call a saint?
There is another dark side of Josaphat Kuntsevich.Here is what the the Chancellor of Lithuania, Leo Sapiega, the representative of the Polish King, wrote to Josaphat Kuntsevich on 12 March, 1622, which is one and a half years before Josaphat's death:
"...By thoughtless violence you oppress the Russian people and urge them on to revolt. You are aware of the censure of the simple people, that it would be better to be in Turkish captivity than to endure such persecutions for faith and piety. You write that you freely drown the Orthodox, chop off their heads, and profane their churches. You seal their churches so the people, without piety and Christian rites, are buried like non-Christians. In place of joy, your cunning Uniatism has brought us only woe, unrest, and conflict. We would prefer to be without it. These are the fruits of your Uniatism."
Just before his "martyr's end," which occurred on November 12, 1623 in Vitebsk, Kuntsevich ordered the disposal of dead Orthodox by having their corpses exhumed and thrown to dogs. In all of his Polotsky diocese, both in Mogilyov and in Orsha, he pillaged and terrorized the Orthodox, closing and burning churches. Eloquent complaints were sent to judges and to the Polish Sejm.
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Orthodoc
