Josaphat Kotsylovsky

Who was Josaphat Kotsylovsky?

Blessed Josaphat Joseph Kotsylovsky was a Ukrainian Greek Catholic bishop and martyr.

Kotsylovsky was born 3 March 1876 in the village of Pakoszowka, of the Lemko Region. Kotsylovsky was of Lemko origin, and Ukrainian national orientation. He studied theology in Rome and graduated in 1907, later that year on 9 October he was ordained to the priesthood. Soon after, he was made vice-rector and professor of theology at the Greek-Catholic seminary in Stanislaviv.

On 2 October 1911 he entered the Order of Saint Basil the Great. On September 23, 1917, Kotsylovsky was ordained bishop in Przemyśl by Andrey Sheptytsky. As bishop, he worked to improve the church's educational system and supported monastic orders. He also took steps to combat the rising Russophile movement by appointing Ukrainian priests and funding Ukrainian language journals.

At the end of World War II, Communist Poland assisted the Soviet Union with the liquidation of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. In September 1945 the Communist regime in Poland arrested Kotsylovsky, then released him and arrested him again in 1946. They then handed him over to the Soviet Union. He died on 17 November 1947 in a prison camp near Kiev.