Tuesday, November 12, 2013

November 12 St. Josaphat of Polotsk

"Martyrdom of Jozafat Kuncewicz in Vitebsk"
by Józef Simmler
   

History

About 500 years before Saint Josaphat was born, the Church suffered a terrible split: Catholics in the west and Orthodox in the east. When Josaphat was a young boy, a group of Orthodox bishops tried to reunited with the pope. But many people fought against him. Josaphat grew up to become a priest and he tried to convince his Orthodox brothers and sisters that healing the Church was the right thing to do. After he became bishop, he started to accomplish a log of good things, but some Orthodox people decided to elect their own bishops because they didn’t like Josaphat’s ideas about reuniting with the pope. People were angry and they became violent. Josaphat was killed trying to protect his friends and servants from an angry mob.

Activity

For centuries, popes have attempted to reunify the Church, but the same problems keep people from being humble enough to make it happen. Today, join Saint Josaphat in praying that the Orthodox and Catholic Christians well reunite, that we all may be one Church.

Saint Josaphat, pray for us!

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