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“Vilnius, capital of Lithuania, is the land of the Basilian Order. The archbishop of Polotsk, Josaphat Kuncevyc, lived here in the monastery of the Holy Trinity before being killed by the enemies of the unity of the Church in 1623 and subsequently canonized”, said the head of the province of the Holy Redeemer of the Ukrainian Order of St. Basil, Father Hrigory Hrinkiv, on announcing during a recent press conference the plan to transfer some relics of St. Josaphat from Rome to Vilnius. Born into an Orthodox family in Ukraine in c.1580, the saint embraced the Catholic faith and was accepted into the monastic community of St. Basil. Ordained priest and nominated bishop of Polotsk, he dedicated his life to the cause of the unity of the Church until his martyrdom. Beatified in 1643 and canonized in 1867, his body currently lies in St. Peter’s in the Vatican, below the altar of St. Basil the Great. “The 4th centenary of the foundation of the Basilian Order will be celebrated in 2017″, continued Hrinkiv, who also described the project for the restoration of the monastery of the Holy Trinity to which the relics of the saint will be restored. In conformity with the “act of restitution”, the buildings of the complex of the Holy Trinity have gradually been returned to Church ownership since 1992; at the present time the archdiocesan curia of Vilnius holds three quarters of the complex; the last quarter belongs to the Order of St. Basil which has expressed its desire to re-gain possession of the whole of it.
