| In October, 1883, Putiatin died in Paris. In October, 1884, his daughter Olga Evfimovna Putiatina arrived in Tokyo to serve in the Orthodox Mission as a deaconess, as if to succeed to her father’s dedication to thejapanese Mission. Nikolai came to Japan in the twilight years of the Tokugawa shogunate and worked in the new Japan of the Meiji era. His way to Japan was prepared by Goshkevich and his missionary work was supported by Putiatin. Hieromonk Nikolai, whose original name was Ivan Dmitrievich Kasatkin, was born on August 1, 1836, in the village of Beyroza in Smolensk prefecture. His father, Dmitrii Kasatkin, was the village deacon. Ivan’s mother, Kseniya, died when he was five years old. Ivan was the second son. There are many folksy expressions in Nikolai’s diary entries, which show him to be a man of common origins. After completing his courses at the theological school and the Smolensk Seminary with distinction, he entered the St. Petersburg Theological Academy on a scholarship. While he was a seminarian at Smolensk, Ivan was already aspiring to join an Orthodox mission in a foreign country (specifically in China). However, during these years at the Theological Academy, he read Captain Golovnin’s famous Memoirs of a Captive in Japan, During the Years 1811, 1812, and 1813, and had a new dream — to go to Japan. Some 44 years later, in 1904, Nikolai wrote from Tokyo to Archpriest N. V. Blagorazumov, his friend and classmate from the St. Petersburg Theological Academy: «I wish to ask you a favor of you. Please send me a helper, that is, a good young missionary…. To tell you the truth, my friend Nikolai Vasilievich, our time was much better than now. You remember that as soon as an application appeared on the desk, it was filled up with names. Oh, what names! You and M. I. Gorchakov, the cream of the youth of the Academy, were included among them. And applying for what post? For the post of chaplain of a consular church». (Nikolai’s letter of April 8, 1904.) Blagorazumov, the addressee, made the following memo about that letter: «At that time, ten or twelve student volunteers applied, all on condition of marriage, but Kasatkin alone decided to go as a monk and he beat the others». (See Nikolai Kedrov; Archibishop Nikolai in the Letters to Archpriest N. V. Blagorazumov.) |
| Hilarion (Troitsky), Archimandrite. Letter to L.P. Archangelskaya, March 1914. Archives of A.V.Nikitsky. Letter to Priest Leonid and Lydia Archangelsky, April 1914 (in the copy, the second part of the letter is erroneously dated April 1913; the first part of this composite letter is another letter, sent by V. Troitsky to L.P. Archangelskaya in January 1913.) Archives of A.V. Nikitsky. Hilarion (Troitsky), Archimandrite, Letter to Priest Leonid Archangelsky, June 9, 1914. Archives of A.V.Nikitsky. Hilarion (Troitsky), Archimandrite, Letter to Priest Leonid Archangelsky, November 17, 1913. Archives of A.V.Nikitsky. V.A. Troitsky, Letter to L.P. Archangelskaya, October 27, 1913. Archives of A.V. Nikitsky. Hilarion (Troitsky), Archimandrite. Letter to L.P. Archangelskaya, March 1914. Hilarion (Troitsky), Archimandrite, Letter to Priest Leonid Archangelsky, April 29, 1914; Letter to Priest Leonid and Lydia Archangelsky, April 1914 (in the copy, the second part of the letter is erroneously dated April 1913; the first part of this composite letter is another letter, sent by V. Troitsky to L.P. Archangelskaya in January 1913.) Hilarion (Troitsky), Archimandrite. Letter to L.P. Archangelskaya, March 1914. Hilarion (Troitsky), Archimandrite. Letter to L.P. Archangelskaya, April 6, 1914. Archives of A.V.Nikitsky. See, e.g.: Damascene (Orlovsky), Igumen. “Hieromartyr Hilarion (Troitsky), Archbishop of Verea, Vicar of the Moscow Diocese” in Martyrs, Confessors and Ascetics of Piety of the Russian Orthodox Church in the 20 th Century, 391,393; Sergiy Golubtsov, Protodeacon, Materials for the Biographies of the Professors and Instructors of the MSA: Archbishop Hilarion (Troitsky), 116. Hilarion (Troitsky), Archimandrite, Letter to Priest Leonid Archangelsky, April 29, 1914; Letter to Priest Leonid and Lydia Archangelsky, April 1914 (in the copy, the second part of the letter is erroneously dated April 1913; the first part of this composite letter is another letter, sent by V. Troitsky to L.P. Archangelskaya in January 1913.) |
| Hilarion (Troitsky), Hieromonk, " Letter to L.P. Archangelskaya, July 5, 1913. " Archives of A.V. Nikitsky. Ibid. “Journals of the Meetings of the Council of the Moscow Spiritual Academy for 1913” in “The Theological Herald,” 1914, No. 4, 549-550 (4 th pagination). [staff= штатный . In some European countries, including Russia, there are two kinds of professors: extraordinary and ordinary. The “ordinary” means “full,” while the “extraordinary” professor is not usually head of a department, and is not usually shtatny , either, is not a member of the Council. St. Hilarion’s “extraordinary” professorship seems to be lesser more in title than in actual fact, as it is shtatny (staff) and he is a member of the Council, and it is at any rate higher than his previous position of docent.—Trans.] Sergiy Golubtsov, Protodeacon. Materials for the Biographies of the Professors and Instructors of the MSA: Archbishop Hilarion (Troitsky), 158. V.A. Troitsky, Letter to L.P. Archangelskaya, October 30, 1912. Archives of A.V. Nikitsky. Hilarion (Troitsky), Archimandrite. “Letter to L.P. Archangelskaya, April 6, 1914” from the archives of A.V. Nikitsky. Hilarion (Troitsky), Archimandrite, Letter to Priest Leonid Archangelsky, April 29, 1914; “Letter to Priest Leonid and Lydia Archangelsky, April 1914” (in the copy, the second part of the letter is erroneously dated April 1913; the first part of this composite letter is another letter, sent by V. Troitsky to L.P. Archangelsky in January 1913.) Archives of A.V. Nikitsky. “Summary of the State of the Moscow Spiritual Academy in the 1915/1916 academic year,” “The Theological Herald,” 1916, No. 10/11/12, 7 (5 th pagination). Volkov, the Last at Trinity, 113. Hilarion (Troitsky), Archimandrite, Letter to Priest Leonid Archangelsky, April 29, 1914; Letter to Priest Leonid and Lydia Archangelsky, April 1914 (in the copy, the second part of the letter is erroneously dated April 1913; the first part of this composite letter is another letter, sent by V. Troitsky to L.P. Archangelskaya in January 1913.) Archives of A.V. Nikitsky. |
| So I submitted an application to grant me leave. When I obtain permission, I will go to St. Petersburg to petition the Holy Synod for establishing a mission here». Nikolai returned to Russia at the beginning of 1869 and stayed there for nearly two years. In St. Petersburg he petitioned the Holy Synod and influential persons of the Church for the establishment of a Russian Orthodox mission in Japan. The Diaries of St. Nikolai of Japan open with an entry for March 1, 1870, written at the Alexander Nevsky Monastery in St. Petersburg. His efforts were crowned with success. On April 6, 1870, foundation of the mission was approved by the Holy Synod and Nikolai was appointed its head and promoted from Hieromonk to Archimandrite. The mission had a small staff which consisted of three priests besides Nicholas and one subdeacon. It was provided with an annual budget of 6,000 rubles. Nikolai visited all four theological academies in Russia and attempted to persuade some of the students to join him in missionary work in Japan, but to his disappointment none of them responded to his call. In February, 1871, Nikolai returned to Hakodate with a colleague, Father Grigorii (Volontsov). However, Father Grigorii turned out to be (according Nikolai’s diary entry for January 1, 1872) too idle to be a missionary, and Nikolai had to send him back to Russia in June, 1871. In December of that year, Hieromonk Anatolii (Alexander Dmitrievich Tikhai), a graduate of the Kiev Theological Academy, arrived in Hakodate to assist Nikolai. In January, 1872, Nikolai left Hieromonk Anatolii in charge at Hakodate and set out for Yokohama by sea, eventually arriving in Tokyo on February 4. He immediately began preaching Orthodox Christianity in the new capital of Japan. Since then, for more than 40 years, with untiring zeal, Nikolai continued to promulgate Orthodoxy in Japan. In August, 1879, Nicholal returned to Russia for the second and final time, staying there until November, 1880 to collect contributions for construction of the Cathedral of the Holy Resurrection in Tokyo. During his stay in St. Petersburg, on March 30 (O. S), 1880, Nikolai was consecrated as a Bishop. |
| During the Russo–Japanese War of 1904–1905, few Orthodox Japanese were tortured by spiritual conflict between their Orthodox faith (introduced by Russian missionaries) and their own patriotism. Although they were Orthodox Christians, they prayed fervently for divine favor to Japan. Nikolai himself, in one speech and two circular letters to his flock, summoned Orthodox Japanese to fulfill their duties as faithful subjects — to pray for the victory of the Japanese Imperial forces. His diaries also tell us that he thought it was natural for Orthodox Japanese to pray for the victory of their fatherland. Nikolai seems to have regarded the Orthodox belief, once implanted in Japan, as Japanese Orthodoxy. Nikolai himself was a truly patriotic Russian. His patriotism was not an abstract idea but an ardent emotion. And so he was terribly depressed when he heard the news that Russian army had suffered defeats in Manchuria and that Japan won the naval battle in the Sea of Japan. He also had a genuine and steadfast love for Japanese Orthodox Church, which had been established and developed by him, and which was like his child. When the Russo–Japanese War broke out, he was forced to devide his love into two — his mother country (Russia) and his ’child’ (the Japanese Church). He understood that it was natural for the Japanese people to openly rejoice over the news of Japanese victory, but he could not help feeling so sincere pity at Russia that he sometimes could not participate in the liturgy. As we have seen, The Diaries of St. Nikolai of Japan are a document of great value both to historians and to the reading public. With these diaries, together with the newsletters Kyokai Hochi and Seikyo Shimpo, we will be able to obtain a complete picture of the Japanese Orthodox Church in the Meiji era. In other words, we cannot relate the truth of the Church history without these diaries. It had been known that Nikolai was writing a diary. Bishop Sergii (Tikhomirov), Nikolai’s successor in the overall control of the Japanese Orthodox Church, wrote in his memoirs on Nikolai («Before and After the Passing Away of Archbishop Nikolai» of 1912), that Nikolai was writing about the state of his disease in his diary. However, it was not expected that his diaries would come down to us. Most of the archives relating to Nikolai had disappeared during the chaos following the Great Earthquake of 1923, and no diary was found at the Cathedral of the Resurrection in Tokyo (Nikolai–do, Nikolai’s Cathedral). No Soviet Japanologists or historians were aware that Nikolai’s diaries had been safely kept at the Central State Historical Archive in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg). |
| At the start of World War I, Archimandrite Nikolai was sent to England on a diplomatic mission to seek help in the struggle of the Serbs against Austria. His doctorate from Oxford gained him an invitation to speak at Westminster Abbey. He remained in England for three short months, but Saint Nikolai left a lasting impression on those who heard him. His writings “The Lord’s Commandments,” and “Meditations on the Lord’s Prayer” impressed many in the Church of England. Archimandrite Nikolai left England and went to America, where he proved to be a good ambassador for his nation and his Church. The future saint returned to Serbia in 1919, where he was consecrated as Bishop of Zhicha, and was later transferred to Ochrid. The new hierarch assisted those who were suffering from the ravages of war by establishing orphanages and helping the poor. Bishop Nikolai took over as leader of Bogomljcki Pokret, a popular movement for spiritual revival which encouraged people to pray and read the Bible. Under the bishop’s direction, it also contributed to a renewal of monasticism. Monasteries were restored and reopened, and this in turn revitalized the spiritual life of the Serbian people. In 1921, Bishop Nikolai was invited to visit America again and spent two years as a missionary bishop. He gave more than a hundred talks in less than six months, raising funds for his orphanages. Over the next twenty years, he lectured in various churches and universities. When Germany invaded Yugoslavia on April 6, 1941, Bishop Nikolai, a fearless critic of the Nazis, was arrested and confined in Ljubostir Vojlovici Monastery. In 1944, he and Patriarch Gavrilo were sent to the death camp at Dachau. There he witnessed many atrocities and was tortured himself. When American troops liberated the prisoners in May 1945, the patriarch returned to Yugoslavia, but Bishop Nikolai went to England. The Communist leader Tito was just coming to power in Yugoslavia, where he persecuted the Church and crushed those who opposed him. Therefore, Bishop Nikolai believed he could serve the Serbian people more effectively by remaining abroad. He went to America in 1946, following a hectic schedule in spite of his health problems which were exacerbated by his time in Dachau. He taught for three years at Saint Sava’s Seminary in Libertyville, IL before he settled at Saint Tikhon’s Monastery in South Canaan, PA in 1951. |
| For the next forty years until his death, Nikolai would inspire a dramatic expansion of the mission. He was consecrated bishop in 1880 and archbishop in 1906. In 1891 he consecrated the great Cathedral of the Holy Resurrection, commonly referred to as Nikolai-do. At the time of his death in 1912, there were over 33,000 Japanese Orthodox Christians in 266 parishes served by 35 Japanese priests, 22 deacons, and 106 catechists. By 1900 there was a bimonthly official periodical as well as two monthly journals, all in Japanese. Nikolai also kept an extensive diary, which was recently published in its entirety in Russia in five massive volumes. Nikolai’s mission was so successful because of his vision to form a truly indigenous national church. He had great respect for the language and tradition of the Japanese, and he labored to translate the Bible, liturgy, and other Christian literature into Japanese from the beginning so as to develop native-language Orthodoxy. Indeed, the liturgy was served only in Japanese after Nikolai moved to Tokyo. The number of Russian missionaries was deliberately small so that native converts would assume leadership positions. A particularly important role was played by lay catechists who were supported for full-time church work by the Russian Church and who, in turn, became active missionaries. Moreover, in 1875 two of the first converts (including Paul Sawabe) were ordained as the first Japanese priests. Nikolai also developed Orthodox education. He established a school for catechists and a seminary to train native clergy in Tokyo. A school for girls was established in Tokyo and another in Kyoto, while one for boys and girls existed in Hokaido. There were also many church schools to teach catechism and instruct the children. Nikolai laid great emphasis on education for converts both before and after baptism (especially reading the New Testament) and for their children. A further reason for the success of the mission was Nikolai’s insistence on a great deal of functional autonomy for the Japanese Church. The church was administered by a synod that included lay delegates from every congregation and met every two years. Moreover, Nikolai successfully separated the mission from Russian political interests. This was particularly important during the Russo-Japanese war in 1904–5. During the war Nikolai decided to remain in |
| The Diaries of St. Nikolai of Japan provide materials of inestimable value for the study of Church history. In these diaries, we find many interesting and valuable facts (especially about the main center of the Orthodox mission in Japan) which have remained hitherto unknown. With these diaries, the field of study will move forward with rapid strides and will rest upon much firmer and objective bases. The Diaries contain the private diaries kept by Nikolai, founder and head of the Japanese Orthodox Church. They are the first and most reliable source for historical knowledge of the Church. There were many hidden facts in its history which were kept secret between Nikolai and the persons concerned, and which we could not possibly be aware of without seeing his diaries. From that source we may learn, for example, how Nikolai was supported financially by the Holy Synod and Missionary Society, and how he felt about the living conditions of Russian prisoners of war in Japan, as well as how he rated the efficiency of his Russian colleagues and Japanese catechists. Nikolai sometimes made extensive tours, visiting local churches throughout Japan. He kept up his diary during these tours, giving a full account not only of parish congregations but also of life in rural communities. We can know from his travel diary, for example, how eagerly Japanese Orthodox farmers of the early Meiji years were practicing new styles of Western singing, and under what conditions young women were laboring in provincial towns. Few foreigners knew Japanese provincial life of the time so well at first hand as did Nikolai. His travel diaries are, as it were, the field notebooks of a sociologist gathering materials on the rural life of Japan. The Diaries of St. Nikolai possess, in addition to historical values, an autobiographical aspect. In Japan Nikolai had no trusted adviser with whom he could talk freely. His diary was thus an indispensable companion to which he had been making a full confession for many years. |
| The Synaxis of the Seventy Apostles was established by the Orthodox Church to indicate the equal honor of each of the Seventy. They were sent two by two by the Lord Jesus Christ to go before Him into the cities He would visit (Luke 10:1). Besides the celebration of the Synaxis of the Holy Disciples, the Church celebrates the memory of each of them during the course of the year: St. James the Brother of the Lord (October 23); Mark the Evangelist (April 25); Luke the Evangelist (October 18); Cleopas (October 30), brother of St. Joseph the Betrothed , and Simeon his son (April 27); Barnabas (June 11); Joses, or Joseph, named Barsabas or Justus (October 30); Thaddeus (August 21); Ananias (October 1); Protomartyr Stephen the Archdeacon (December 27); Philip the Deacon (October 11); Prochorus the Deacon (28 July); Nicanor the Deacon (July 28 and December 28); Timon the Deacon (July 28 and December 30); Parmenas the Deacon (July 28); Timothy (January 22); Titus (August 25); Philemon (November 22 and February 19); Onesimus (February 15); Epaphras and Archippus (November 22 and February 19); Silas, Silvanus, Crescens or Criscus (July 30); Crispus and Epaenetos (July 30); Andronicus (May 17 and July 30); Stachys, Amplias, Urban, Narcissus, Apelles (October 31); Aristobulus (October 31 and March 16); Herodion or Rodion (April 8 and November 10); Agabus, Rufus, Asyncritus, Phlegon (April 8); Hermas (November 5, November 30 and May 31); Patrobas (November 5); Hermes (April 8); Linus, Gaius, Philologus (November 5); Lucius (September 10); Jason (April 28); Sosipater (April 28 and November 10); Olympas or Olympanus (November 10 ); Tertius (October 30 and November 10); Erastos (November 30), Quartus (November 10); Euodius (September 7); Onesiphorus (September 7 and December 8); Clement (November 25); Sosthenes (December 8); Apollos (March 30 and December 8); Tychicus, Epaphroditus (December 8); Carpus (May 26); Quadratus (September 21); Mark (September 27), called John, Zeno (September 27); Aristarchus (April 15 and September 27); Pudens and Trophimus (April 15); Mark nephew of Barnabas, Artemas (October 30); Aquila (July 14); Fortunatus (June 15) and Achaicus (January 4). |
| The greatest misfortune to befall Nikolai and the Japanese Orthodox Church of the Meiji era was the Russo–Japanese War of 1904–1905. Although the entire staff of the Russian Legation returned to Russia, Nikolai himself remained in Tokyo to defend his flock against the attacks of non–Christian and Protestant Japanese. He also worked for the welfare of the Russian captives in Japan (who numbered more than 70000) and sent Japanese Orthodox priests and Russian–speaking catechists to the prisoners’ camps to provide the Russians with some religious consolation. Throughout the war, Nikolai wrote his diary; indeed this period marks the climax of his diary writing. The war ended in September, 1905. In April, 1906, Bishop Nikolai was elevated to the dignity of Archbishop. Six years later, on February 16 (3 O. S.), Nikolai — the Apostle to Japan — passed away. In 1911, just before his death, the Japanese Orthodox Church numbered (in addition to Archbishop Nikolai) 1 bishop, 40 priests and deacons, 15 precentors (regents), 121 catechists, 31984 Orthodox Christians, and 265 churches and houses of prayer. The enlightenment of Japan during the Meiji era encompassed the westernization of Japanese politics, social relations, industry and so forth. The westernization of Japan in the field of religion meant the implantation of Christianity, which has since then obtained a considerably wide acceptance in the Japanese people and has had a great influence upon their spiritual life. However, the Christianity newly implanted in Meiji Japan was not a single kind. It comprised at least three varieties: Catholicism, Protestantism, and Orthodoxy, each of which had its own characteristic influence on the Japanese people. (For the reopened Japan, Orthodoxy introduced from Russia was one of the ’western’ faiths.) The history of Protestant missions in Japan has been investigated in detail. Protestantism spread mostly among those young Japanese intellectuals who were eager to study ’Western science’. From the start, Protestant missionaries in Japan made use of the English language (the indispensable key to Western learning) to attract young Japanese. (Please see the article «Protestant Mission» by Masao Takenaka in The Cyclopedia of the History of Christianity in Japan, Tokyo, 1988.) |
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