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Basilian monks

Basilian monks (Basilians, Lat. OSBM, Ordo Sancti Basilii Magni) is the common name of several Roman Catholic monastic orders of the Byzantine rite that follow a life-in-common statute considered to be created by St.Vasily Great. The order was founded in 1617 on the basis of the monasteries that accepted the Brest union in 1596. Originally it was called the Order of the Holy Trinity. It was affirmed by Pope Urban VIII in 1631. The order became popular in the eastern regions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, where the majority of the population has traditionally adhered to the Byzantine rite. Activities of the order facilitated the conversion of Orthodox population of Poland that adhered to the Eastern Rite to Catholicism. Late the order was renamed in honor of St. Josaphat Kuntsevich. Since 1720 all greek-catholic monasteries in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth had belonged to the Bazilians. By the end of the XVIII century almost all greek-catholic metropolitans of Kiev were bazilian monks. In the middle of the XVIII century the order numbered about 195 monasteries and more than a thousand of monks. Greater emphasis in the activities of the order was made on education of young people. In this field the Bazilians competed with the Jesuits.