St Nicholas, Equal to the Apostles, Archbishop of Japan (+1912)

Saint Nicholas, Equal to the Apostles, Bishop of Japan (in the world Ivan Dmitrievich Kasatkin), was born in 1836 in the Smolensk governorate, into a deacon’s family. He was five when his mother died. After receiving a thorough theological education, the future saint was tonsured a monk in 1860 with the name Nicholas; soon Saint Nicholas was ordained hieromonk, and then, at his own wish, was appointed to Japan as rector of the consular church in the city of Hakodate.

At first preaching the Gospel in Japan seemed unthinkable. In Father Nicholas’s own words, “the Japanese of that time looked on foreigners as wild beasts, and on Christianity as a church of villains, to which only evildoers and sorcerers could belong”. For eight years the saint studied the foreign country, its language, and the customs of the people among whom he was to preach. In 1868 Father Nicholas’s flock already numbered about twenty Japanese. In 1869 Hieromonk Nicholas presented the results of his work to the Synod in Petersburg. It was decided “to form a special Russian Ecclesiastical Mission for preaching the word of God among the Japanese”. Father Nicholas was raised to the rank of archimandrite and entrusted with the leadership of this mission. On returning to Japan the saint handed over the Hakodate flock to Hieromonk Anatoly, and himself moved the centre of the mission to Tokyo. In 1871 a persecution of Christians began in the country. Many experienced the bitterness of persecution themselves (among them the first Orthodox Japanese, afterwards the well-known missionary priest Paul Sawabe). In 1873 the fury of the pagans subsided, and preaching became possible again.

In the same year Archimandrite Nicholas began building a church in Tokyo and founded a school, which was later turned into a seminary.

In 1874 Bishop Paul of Kamchatka came to Tokyo and ordained as priests the Japanese Christians recommended by Archimandrite Nicholas. In 1877 the mission began regular publication of the journal “Church Herald”. On 30 March 1880 Archimandrite Nicholas was consecrated bishop in the Trinity Cathedral of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra. On returning to Japan the hierarch continued his apostolic work with still greater zeal: he completed the building of the Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ in Tokyo, began a new translation of the service books, and compiled an Orthodox theological dictionary in Japanese.

A great trial befell the hierarch and his flock during the Russo-Japanese War. For his labours in those hard years the holy father was raised to the rank of archbishop.

In 1911 half a century had passed since the young Hieromonk Nicholas first set foot on Japanese soil. By this time there were more than 33,000 Christians in the 266 communities of the Orthodox Church of Japan.

On 3 February 1912 the enlightener of Japan, Archbishop Nicholas, reposed in peace. On 10 April 1970 the Russian Orthodox Church numbered the venerable father among the saints and counted him among those Equal to the Apostles.