Today, November 12, is the memorial of Saint Josaphat.
Josaphat Kuntsevych was born in 1580 in the Ukraine. His family was from the Eastern Orthodox Church. In time, Josaphat became interested in the Catholic Church.
Thus in his early 20s he became a monk of the Order of Saint Basil the Great. He was ordained priest and became bishop of Polock. He took it upon himself to bring part of the Orthodox Church into union with Rome.
Because of his active leadership in this cause, his enemies decided to kill him. In 1623, an Orthodox mob broke into his room and hit his head with a stick and then with an axe. When Josaphat fell, he was mercilessly beaten up and then shot in the head.
The angry townspeople dragged his dead body through the streets and then threw it into the deep part of the river.
Josaphat was beatified by Pope Urban VIII in 1643. He was canonized by Blessed Pope Pius IX in Rome in 1867.