November 12th. St. Josaphat.

A native of the Ukraine, born in 1580, he was ordained in 1604. He is seen as a pioneer worker for practical ecumenism, though it was to cost him his life. In 1595 a large part of the province of Kiev, in the Ukraine, had been brought back into Union with Rome (the so-called Union of Brest-Litovsk), while retaining their own traditional Eastern features of liturgy, spirituality and discipline, including a married clergy. Josaphat was an ardent reformer (he tried to take in hand the famous Kievan monastery of the Caves, where lax customs had crept in) and promoter of the Union. He was walking on thin ice, given the traditional Byzantine dislike of Rome and the dangerous confusion of nationalist and religious issues. In 1617 he was made Archbishop of Polotsk, but was soon confronted by a rival, nationalist claimant who connived at his murder in 1623. Josaphat was canonised in 1867. The issue of the ‘Uniate’ churches has always proved a problematic one, with local accusations that those who supported Rome were traitors. The Ukrainian Catholic church was officially suppressed by Stalin, but went underground and with the coming of glasnost it emerged with its features surprisingly intact. The present Pope, with his deep insights into the workings of Eastern Christianity, has encouraged the development of these distinctive features with the Roman Church.