Nobody won with the death of Josaphat Kuntsevych
[1580-1623]
Josaphat lived in Poland during a period of great inter-Christian conflict. The king of was trying to drive out the Eastern Orthodox Church by having Catholic bishops, like Josaphat, arrest Orthodox priests. One autumn day, Josaphat was trying to do precisely that, until up rose a mob of Orthodox townspeople. They hit him on the head with a stick, split his skull with an axe, shot him in the face, then dragged his body — and the body of a dog who’d tried to protect him — through the city streets. There were no winners here, but the Catholics had the last word: a few months later, 93 Orthodox were sentenced to death for Josaphat’s killing.