www.byzcath.org Forums Eastern Missionary Saints

Dear Alex:

Sorry if I was not clearer in my previous post.

Essentially, then, these Eastern missionary Saints were into areas loosely considered "home" missions. Most were within the Tsarist imperial territories, whose faith was already Orthodox!

I was hoping that these missionaries were into "foreign" missions or initiating virgin territories (excuse the pun) or, at least, reviving territories earlier abandoned or neglected. Mongolia and China, for example!

Thanks for the update!

Amado

And I knew a woman who reposed circa 1977 who, as a girl, had met Saint John.
Not by the books. But saints often don't do things by the books. Saint Seraphim Sarovsky was criticized in his lifetime for anointing the sick with oil (and curing them) without using the prescribed ritual. 'Tis similar to the old adage that a good writer can break the rules of grammar and usage artistically, but if one who does not know the rules so breaks them, he is showing his ignorance.

And, of course, public confession was known in ancient times.

Photius

Yes, I've read about the Korean persecutions before. My wife and all my in laws are Korean, and Christianity as practiced within that culture is very intense and vibrant for the most part.

There is actually a small Korean mission now under the Omophorion of the Ecumenical Patriarch in the South. There was sadly a very destructive fire set by an intruder recently at the church in the city of Incheon.

There were also recently two deacons ordained in Russia to service the Orthodox Church the Communist authorities allowed to be opened in Pyongyang.

My wife feels there is a lot of overlap culturally and belief wise between Orthodoxy and Korean culture. We'll see what happens there.

Dear Photius,

That reminds me of the Orthodox priest who stood by the relics of St Seraphim of Sarov.

He was a holy man who could read minds.

People were lining up to have their little icons and medallions blessed (and I have an antique one from Sarov!!) - the priest was simply placing these on the relics of St Seraphim.

But one fellow thought to himself, "Why, you need Holy Water to bless things . . ."

As he came up to the priest, he looked at him, took out some Holy Water and blessed his icon that way, all the while gazing at him.

Alex

Dear Amigo Amado,

In fact, the Siberian peoples of the Tsarist Empire were largely pagan and animist - they needed to be evangelized.

To its credit, the Russian Orthodox missions throughout those regions did NOT impose a Russian cultural hegemony on those peoples but allowed their native cultures to blend with Orthodoxy.

And St Innocent of Alaska was accompanied by a Jewish physician who so marvelled at Innocent's self-sacrifice in visiting his cold mission outposts that he himself became an Orthodox Christian.

Alex

Dear Rilian,

You certainly raise a central point with respect to the historical "sympathy" between Eastern Orthodoxy and a number of cultures in Europe and Asia.

This is what led St Vladimir of Kyivan Rus' to accept baptism from Constantinople and even more importantly, what led the peoples of Rus' to quickly assimilate Eastern Christianity to their way of life and identity.

I, for one, hope the Assyrian Church of the East could, one day, become the Church of China, as it once was.

Alex

Alex:

Don't you approve of the work of the Latin Church in China?

Yes, the ACE was first to northwest China (from Syria and Persia) in the 6th century but was banned by her dynastic imperial rulers after only a hundred or so years of being tolerated. "Jinjiao," or the Nestorian faith as called by the Chinese at that time, was banned altogether.

In the 13th century, after 700 years of Christian missionary inactivity, the Latins arrived through southeast China and found some remnants of the Nestorians, who were then gradually absorbed into the "new" Christian (Catholic) faith called by the native Chinese "Yalikewen." Catholicism was intermittently banned and banished since then until the Communist takeover in 1949 when Catholicism went underground because of intense persecution.

There are an estimated 16 million Catholics in mainland China today (about 12 million loyal to Rome) and about 500,000 in Taiwan and 250,000 in Hongkong.

Unfortunately, there is an increasing number of Protestants representing various denominations following the steps of the Catholic Church and evangelizing throughout China!

When will the Orthodox Church revive its structure inside mainland China? The EP has a strong and vibrant Metropolitanate of Hongkong.

Amado

Don't forget St. Sergey of Radonzeh, the Optina Elders, and of course Bl. Leonid Feodorov.

But all of the holy monastics were, of course, great missionary saints...

The suggestion of Maximos IV Saigh was a great one, and I would add Patriarch Josyp, Maximos V, and Archbishops Raya and Zoghby.

Our Holy Father, St Tikhon would definitely qualify and he is called "Enlightener of North America"

Dear Amigo Amado,

I just said how nice it would be if the "Rite" of China would be its original Assyrian one!

The Roman Catholic Church in Russia sets up Latin parishes to which Russians belong etc.

Why can't it promote the Byzantine-Russian tradition there?

And it was Rome's fault for forbidding the Chinese Rites, taking the Franciscans' side rather than the more educated Jesuits' side, in the debate.

That was a fatal error on Rome's part and by the time Pope Piux XII approved the Chinese Rites, Christianity had lost a unique opportunity.

But O.K.

Alex