Homily for the Commemoration of Saint Nicholas of Japan
By Fr. Daniel Sysoev
By Fr. Daniel Sysoev
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit!
I congratulate you all on the feast day of Saint Nicholas of Japan, Equal-to-the-Apostles! This day is special for us, as we want to build a chapel in our large church in honor of Saint Nicholas of Japan, Equal-to-the-Apostles. His life should be an example for us of how a person can fulfill God's will in completely unimaginable circumstances. Saint Nicholas was from the Tver region. He graduated from seminary, then from the St. Petersburg Academy. The Synod sent a letter to the Academy inviting those interested in becoming priests in Japan, and Nicholas agreed to go. Then, after three centuries of banning Europeans from visiting the country, Japan opened its doors to foreigners. Three hundred years earlier, a very successful Catholic mission had been established in Japan, and the government, fearing the mass Christianization of a pagan people, killed all the missionaries and closed the country completely. Ultimately, this policy led Japan to complete economic collapse.
Saint Nicholas was one of the first foreigners to come to Japan; he served at the newly opened Russian embassy. At that time, the Japanese viewed Europeans in the same way Russians view Americans today. Even worse: they considered all Europeans to be white monkeys, lacking any culture, savage barbarians who only drank vodka, engaged in all sorts of outrageous behavior, and dreamed of conquering Japan. The Japanese considered Christianity to be the most savage thing among Europeans. And this is the situation Saint Nicholas found himself in. A revolution took place before his eyes, the shogunate was overthrown, an emperor and parliament were elected, and Saint Nicholas decided to convert the Japanese to Orthodoxy. He spent eight years studying Japanese language and culture, and the Japanese themselves later admitted that he knew Japanese culture better than the average Japanese. But for eight years, Nicholas was unable to convert anyone to Orthodoxy.
One day, while serving for Russians at a church in the city of Hakodate, he met a samurai who was an idol priest and fencing instructor. He glared at Father Nikolai with terrible hatred and wanted to cut him down. But Father Nikolai asked him directly about the reason for his hatred. The samurai replied that Europeans wanted to impose their culture, deprive the Japanese of their identity, and conquer the country, so the best thing to do was to kill Europeans. Nikolai retorted that he, completely ignorant of Christianity, was arguing with it. The samurai agreed that without knowledge of the subject, it was impossible to discuss it, and together they began studying Christianity from the catechism of Metropolitan Philaret Drozdov. Eventually, the samurai and his two friends converted to Orthodoxy. The Japanese authorities heard about this, and at that time in Japan there was a death penalty for baptism, and Saint Nicholas sent this samurai and his friends to different parts of the country.
Soon, the samurai who had converted to Orthodoxy was caught and thrown into prison, where he also preached Christ. Father Nikolai also faced the death penalty, but at that time another revolution, inspired by Europeans, occurred, and Japan's anti-Christian laws were repealed under pressure from England, France, and Russia. This is a positive example of the colonial system, when the Japanese government was forced to renounce the killing of people in the name of Christ. After this, the Church of God began to grow, and Father Nikolai was the only missionary from Russia. He was soon ordained a bishop. He traveled throughout Japan, translated the Bible into Japanese, and from the very beginning, liturgies were also conducted in Japanese. By the end of Nikolai's life, there were thirty-five thousand Orthodox Christians in Japan.
Many missionaries who came to him from Russia soon left due to difficult conditions. For a long time, Father Nikolai was assisted by the future patriarch, then Archimandrite Sergei of Starogorod, and the Holy Martyr Andronicus of Perm. But the only one who remained with Nikolai was Archbishop Sergiy Tikhomirov. Virtually all the missionaries were Japanese, and Nikolai relied solely on them. He built a huge cathedral in honor of the Resurrection of Christ in the center of Tokyo. With Nikolai's direct participation, one hundred and fifty churches were opened in Japan. Saint Nicholas's heroic deed consisted in preaching the word of God despite a hostile environment. The preaching of Christianity continued even during the Russo-Japanese War. Father Nikolai loved Russia dearly, but he blessed Japanese Christians for the war, although he refused to pray for a Japanese victory. As a result, he was decorated by both the Russian Emperor Nicholas II and the Japanese Emperor. At his funeral, the Japanese Emperor sent a wreath, an honor never bestowed upon any foreigner.
Here we see an example of wisdom — separating Christianity from culture, emphasizing the universal nature of the Church of God. Christianity is the absolute truth, given to all peoples, not limited, for example, to the Russian people. The Russian people became noble and attained such greatness thanks to Orthodoxy. As soon as they apostatized from Orthodoxy, the Lord began to punish them, carving up the country piece by piece as punishment for their apostasy. Saint Nicholas is an example of missionary work that we should emulate. We must bring the word of God, both timely and untimely, to all people around us, regardless of nation or culture, because the Christian faith transforms any nation, any culture, bringing out the best in it and mortifying the evil.
Father Nikolai was asked about his attitude toward Japanese culture. He responded that Japanese culture contains many good qualities, such as the respect for ancestors that Shintoism imparted, or the compassion that Buddhism imparted. But Nikolai emphasized that the misconceptions of Shintoism and Buddhism must be discarded. Without knowledge of God, man can never achieve anything. When asked about veneration of the Motherland, Saint Nicholas replied that we honor our earthly Motherland, we care for it, we pray to God that our earthly Motherland may be strong and noble, but at the same time, we know that our true Motherland is in Heaven, and for us, no matter what nation a person belongs to, it matters not. People often swing from one extreme to another — either becoming cosmopolitans who declare they hate Russia, or becoming rabid nationalists who despise other peoples. Both cosmopolitanism and nationalism are grave misconceptions.
Saint Nicholas created sacred Japanese culture; in fact, it began with him. The Japanese Orthodox Church still exists and is successfully developing. Several years ago, the first Orthodox monastery was founded in Japan. May God grant us an example of missionary wisdom like Saint Nicholas's! May God's mercy be with us all!
God bless you!
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
