MEMORIAL OF SAINT JOSAPHAT, BISHOP AND MARTYR AND SAINT MARTIN I, POPE AND MARTYR – FEAST DAY ~ NOVEMBER 12TH: Today, we celebrate the Memorial of Saint Josaphat, Bishop and Martyr and Saint Martin I, Pope and Martyr.
May Saint Josaphat, Patron Saint of Ukraine, intercede for the people of Ukraine during these challenging times.

SAINT JOSAPHAT, BISHOP AND MARTYR: St. Josaphat Kuncewitcz (1580-1623) was born about the year 1580 at Vladimir, Volhynia, [part of the Polish province of Lithuania at the time] to a devout religious family of Ruthenian ancestry in what is now Ukraine. He was baptized and given the name John in the Eastern Orthodox Church. While being instructed as a child on the sufferings of our Savior, his heart is said to have been wounded by an arrow from the sacred side of the Crucified. He devoted his virginity to the Virgin Mary and grew in his reverence for ancient liturgy. During a revival of Eastern Catholic monastic life, in 1604 he joined the Ukrainian Order of Saint Basil (Basilians) and was ordained to Holy Orders in the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in 1609. He lived as a monk in a very mortified life, went barefoot even in winter, refrained from the use of wine and flesh-meat, and always wore a penitential garb. He was noted for his life of asceticism, holiness, and virtue which led to his appointment in 1614 as archimandrite of Vilna, Russia and four years later Archbishop of Polotzk in what is today Belarus; in this position he worked untiringly for Church reunion. He was a great friend of the poor, once even pledged his archepiscopal omophorion (pallium) to support a poor widow.

During his lifetime there was much sociopolitical and ecclesiastical rivalry between the Catholics and Orthodox and the Latin and Byzantine rites, especially in the wake of the 1596 Union of Brest which saw the Ruthenian Church break with Orthodox and place itself under the authority of the Holy See. St. Josaphat was passionate about working for the reunification with Rome and won many heretics and schismatics back to communion with the Holy See. However, he was also strongly opposed to the Latinization of his people. This combination of views drew ire from both Catholic and Orthodox clergy. His diocese was contested by the Orthodox, and a rival Orthodox bishop was set up to oppose him, causing riots. During one uprising Josaphat tried to calm the tensions and work for reunification and peace, but his enemies plotted to kill him. In a sermon, he himself spoke of his death as imminent. When he visited Vitebsk (now in Russia), his enemies, a mob of Orthodox Christians attacked his lodging and murdered a number of his companions. Meekly the man of God hastened toward the mob and, full of love, cried, “My children, what are you doing? If you have something against me, see, here I am.” With furious cries of “Kill the papist!”, they rushed upon him with gun and sword and he was murdered in 1623 at the age of forty-three. St. Josaphat’s body was thrown into the river but emerged, surrounded by rays of light, and was recovered. St. Josaphat’s body was discovered incorrupt, five years later. Remarkably, the saint’s onetime rival – the Orthodox Archbishop Meletius – was reconciled with the Catholic Church in later years. His murderers, when sentenced to death, repented their crime and became Catholics. After his martyrdom many miracles were attributed to his intercession. St. Josaphat’s sacrifice became a blessing as regret and sorrow over his death converted many hearts toward reunification with Rome. In 1867, Josaphat became the first saint of the Eastern Church to be formally canonized by Rome. He is one of the Patron Saints of Poland; Ukraine.

QUOTES OF SAINT JOSAPHAT:
☆”Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.”
☆“I am ready to die for the holy union, for the supremacy of Saint Peter and of his successor, the Supreme Pontiff.”
☆“Please God I will give my life for the holy union, for the supremacy of Peter and of the Holy Father, his successor… Lord, grant me the grace to shed my blood for the unity of the church and in behalf of obedience to the Holy See.”

PRAYER: God, stir up in Your Church the Spirit that strengthened St. Josaphat to be able to lay down his life for his sheep. May we be strengthened by the same Spirit so that through Josaphat’s intercession we may be ready to lay down our lives for our brethren. Amen 🙏

SAINT MARTIN I, POPE AND MARTYR: Saint Pope Martin I, was born at Todi on the Tiber, son of Fabricius; elected Pope at Rome, July 21, 649, to succeed Theodore I; died at Cherson in the present peninsulas of Krym, September 16, 655, after a reign of 6 years, one month and twenty six days, having ordained eleven priests, five deacons and thirty-three bishops. Pope Martin I, was outstanding for virtue and knowledge. He was a courageous defender of the faith against heresy. He was selected by divine Providence to be the supreme defender of the doctrine that in Christ there are two wills, a divine and a human, against the monothelite teaching of one will, favored at Constantinople. Immediately after ascending the papal throne, he convoked a synod at the Lateran which put the true teaching in its proper light and condemned the opposing error. Emperor Constans II supported the monothelite patriarch of Constantinople and commissioned the Exarch Olympios to assassinate the Pope. The Exarch entrusted the task to a lictor to murder Martin during Mass in the church of St. Mary of the Crib. The lictor could not accomplish the mission because he was suddenly struck blind. From that moment many misfortunes befell the Emperor, but no change in attitude resulted. Instead he sent the Exarch Theodor Kalliopes to Rome with orders to arrest the Pope.

St. Martin was carried to Constantinople to begin a tedious martyrdom. He was given over to the scoffing of the rabble as he lay ill on the ship. For three months he languished in prison. Called before a tribunal, he was condemned, robbed of his episcopal garments and put into chains. Finally he was banished to Cherson in the Crimea where he died there due to inhuman privations  and exhaustion on September 16, 655. Two letters written before his death give evidence of how he suffered under the dreadful treatment.

PRAYER: Pope Saint Martin I, through your intercession before the Father in Heaven, fortify all teachers and leaders of the Church to remain steadfast in the truth, to advocate for the truth, and to suffer for the truth, no matter the personal cost… Amen🙏