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| St. Nicholas of Japan (Feast Day - February 3) |
Showing posts with label St. Nicholas of Japan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label St. Nicholas of Japan. Show all posts
An Article About Saint Nicholas of Japan From 1904
The following article, titled "Father Nicolai and the Holy Church", was originally published in the Fukuin Shimpō, which means "Weekly Gospel", a prominent weekly Christian paper in Japan, and republished in the Chinese Recorder and Missionary Journal in May of 1904 (Vol. 35, No. 5, pp. 219-345), eight years prior to his repose.
By K. Ishikawa
Father Nicolai first came to Japan as a missionary in 1861, or the first year of Bunkyu (文久), the sixth month, before the writer was born. He was then twenty-four years old. From that time to this, almost fifty years, he has had but a single purpose — evangelization — and his labors have resulted in the establishment of the Sei Kyōkwai (Holy Church, 聖教会).
Saint Nicholas of Japan on Buddhism
By Deacon Giorgi Maximov
Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Archbishop Nicholas (Kasatkin; 1836-1912), an outstanding missionary to Japan where he labored for over fifty years, was the founder of the Japanese Orthodox Church. Of the tens of thousands of Japanese converted to Orthodoxy thanks to his labors, a significant portion were former Buddhists, and amongst his assistants were former Buddhist monks (Bhikkhu), for example, Paul Savabe. The saint studied Buddhism during the first eight years of his time in Japan, when, in his words, he “strove with all diligence to study Japanese history, religion, and the spirit of the Japanese people.”[1]
St. Nicholas offered an integral study of Buddhism in his work, “Japan from the point of view of Christian mission,” published in 1869. This was the first description of Japanese Buddhism accessible to the Russian language reader. It was clear from this work that the author studied Buddhism quite seriously, but for understandable reasons, limited his sources to those in the Japanese language.
Saint Nicholas, Archbishop of Japan (+ 1912)
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| St. Nicholas of Japan (Feast Day - February 3) |
Ivan Dimitrievich Kasatkin was born on August 1, 1836 in the village of Berezovsk, Belsk district, Smolensk diocese, where his father served as deacon. At the age of five he lost his mother. He completed the Belsk religious school, and afterwards the Smolensk Theological Seminary. In 1857 Ivan Kasatkin entered the Saint Peterburg Theological Academy. On June 24, 1860, in the academy Church of the Twelve Apostles, Bishop Nectarius tonsured him with the name Nicholas.
On June 29, the Feast of the Foremost Apostles Peter and Paul, the monk Nicholas was ordained deacon. The next day, on the altar feast of the academy church, he was ordained to the holy priesthood. Later, at his request, Father Nicholas was assigned to Japan as head of the consular church in the city of Hakodate.
The Missionary Example of Saint Nicholas of Japan
St. Nicholas of Japan (Feast Day - February 3)Saint Nicholas of Japan was a unique and notable example to all Orthodox Christian missionaries.
First, he threw himself wholeheartedly into understanding the language and culture. When he was found reading non-Japanese books, his Archbishop rebuked him, and he resolved to only read Japanese literature. He got out into the community and listened to Buddhist and Shinto storytellers and preachers. He researched the history of Japan. He knew it better than most Japanese.
Second, he took the long view. He spent eight years researching the Japanese language and culture. His first convert came after four years of study. Taking the long view also means delegation. In 1869 - five years after the first convert! - he handed over his congregation to another missioner. Having established one congregation, he moved to Tokyo to set up another. This pattern of establishing, delegating and moving on marked his ministry.
Third, he understood the people. His first convert was a samurai called Sawabe. Takuma Sawabe was an ultra-nationalist - one of the kinds of people in the black minivans that we would shy away from these days - who regarded the Russian Consulate as symbolic of all of the problems of opening up the country to foreigners. When Sawabe came to the Consulate, sword drawn, ready to kill Nikolai, Nikolai knew to appeal to his samurai nature:
"Why are you angry at me?" Fr. Nicholas asked Sawabe.
"All you foreigners must die. You have come here to spy on our country and even worse, you are harming Japan with your preaching," answered Sawabe.
"But do you know what I preach?" Nicholas replied.
"No, I don't," he answered.
"Then how can you judge, much less condemn something you know nothing about? Is it just to defame something you do not know? First listen to me, and then judge. If what you hear is bad, then throw us out."
Sawabe did listen to him, and was persuaded through his words and through the Holy Spirit working in him. Nikolai knew how to make Sawabe listen. How many of us today can honestly say that we know how to make Japanese people listen to us and our message?
First, he threw himself wholeheartedly into understanding the language and culture. When he was found reading non-Japanese books, his Archbishop rebuked him, and he resolved to only read Japanese literature. He got out into the community and listened to Buddhist and Shinto storytellers and preachers. He researched the history of Japan. He knew it better than most Japanese.
Second, he took the long view. He spent eight years researching the Japanese language and culture. His first convert came after four years of study. Taking the long view also means delegation. In 1869 - five years after the first convert! - he handed over his congregation to another missioner. Having established one congregation, he moved to Tokyo to set up another. This pattern of establishing, delegating and moving on marked his ministry.
Third, he understood the people. His first convert was a samurai called Sawabe. Takuma Sawabe was an ultra-nationalist - one of the kinds of people in the black minivans that we would shy away from these days - who regarded the Russian Consulate as symbolic of all of the problems of opening up the country to foreigners. When Sawabe came to the Consulate, sword drawn, ready to kill Nikolai, Nikolai knew to appeal to his samurai nature:
"Why are you angry at me?" Fr. Nicholas asked Sawabe.
"All you foreigners must die. You have come here to spy on our country and even worse, you are harming Japan with your preaching," answered Sawabe.
"But do you know what I preach?" Nicholas replied.
"No, I don't," he answered.
"Then how can you judge, much less condemn something you know nothing about? Is it just to defame something you do not know? First listen to me, and then judge. If what you hear is bad, then throw us out."
Sawabe did listen to him, and was persuaded through his words and through the Holy Spirit working in him. Nikolai knew how to make Sawabe listen. How many of us today can honestly say that we know how to make Japanese people listen to us and our message?
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| Fr. Paul Sawabe |
Fourth, he was committed to his people. This is a matter of integrity. He needed the Japanese people to know that he was on their side. Many missionaries take the option of relying on their home countries when things get tough, but Nikolai was absolutely sold out for Japan, and his congregation knew his love through his dedication to them. When Japan and Russia went to war, many of his own congregation urged him to go back home. (Remember that he came to Japan under the auspices of the Russian Consulate in Japan.) But he refused; he needed to serve and be with his people. At the same time, he found ways to minister to Russian prisoners of war in Japan.
Finally, he was quick to delegate, as we have already alluded to. When Paul Sawabe begun to believe, he brought three friends along to hear Nikolai's preaching. Nikolai left the four original believers to go and do their own discipleship, and one year later there were 12 baptized, and 25 of what we would now call "seekers". Fifteen years after this, the church was four thousand strong. To make this work would require yet further delegation, and so he began the process of ordaining Japanese clergy. By the time he came to celebrate fifty years of his mission, there were 43 clergy ordained and 121 lay preachers. And let's remember that five years after having a church of one, he passed it on and moved on to Tokyo. He knew that if he was going to reach the whole of Japan, he could not confine himself to one area for the whole of his missionary life.
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