Like a phoenix into the ashes: christological and Jesuit profile of Uniate martyrdom in Andrzej Młodzianowski's Emblematic vita (1675) of Josaphat Kuntsevych (1580-1623)

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ENConsidering the dynamic of cultic worship in the post-Tridentine Church, recognising the sanctity of the first Uniate martyr was a remarkable step also in procedural terms. The Pope suspended the regulation of the period of fifty years resting after the death of a candidate to sanctity, which from his time on was required to initiate the procedure. In the end, Josaphat's public veneration was allowed within the Basilian Order and the Ruthenian church metropolis. The authorisation of the limited cult, which fits the framework of beatification, was a transitional solution: according to the indult, the canonisation, which means recognition of the worship in the entire Church, was the ultimate goal. The local actors and Uniate hierarchy therefore tried to maintain the euphoria: between 1664 and 1666, Jakub Jan Susza, a Basilian bishop of Chełm (in Poland) promoted Josaphat's case in Rome. His Cursus vitae et certamen martyrii beati Iosaphat Cuncevii (1665) replaced the Relatio as the standard vita; it was re-edited in 1865 to contribute to the revived process, which concluded with the proclamation of Josaphat as a saint two years later. Given the course of his saint-making, he might be indeed regarded as a phoenix raised from the tragedy of his death to be reborn as a saint enjoying eternal fame as a martyr. A subtle play on the concept of such a 'saint phoenix' can be observed in his hagiographical dossier. An image of the phoenix was substituted for Josaphat's figure in his emblematic vita: Andrzej Młodzianowski, a Jesuit, published the Icones symbolicae vitae et mortis beati Iosaphat martyrin in 1675, just a few years after Susza's Cursus, and thus still on the wave of the canonisation efforts. The propagandistic angle of the work corresponded with the parenetic function of the Jesuit iconography, which in this case was directed at the religious and political instruction of the dedicatee. [p. 348-349].