Dad was a businessman turned politician

John followed in his father's footsteps into the business world, but then decided to take another path.

He would not be a businessman and a politician like his father.

At the age of 24, John decided to become a monk.

Even as a student monk, John’s talent and piety made a tremendous impact, as he provided spiritual counsel to leading citizens.

Not long after he was ordained a priest, John was put in charge of several monasteries.

He became an archbishop before he was 40.

John’s ministry was very successful: promoting reform, spiritual renewal, and Church unity. His work for unity, however, had many enemies.

On the sixth anniversary of his becoming a bishop, a mob broke into his house. John Josaphat Kuncevyc was beaten, axed, and thrown into the river on this very day in 1623. His body was found 5 years later – miraculously incorrupt. St. Josaphat, Archbishop of Polotsk (Lithuania) in the Byzantine Ruthenian rite of the Roman Catholic Church was canonized in 1876.

(adapted from an earlier post)