www.byzcath.org Forums Eastern Missionary Saints

Dear Friends,

Just a thought - shouldn't we promote the veneration of Eastern missionary saints as a way to develop a "missionary perspective" ourselves?

Yes?

All right . . .

Here is a list of a number of Orthodox missionary Saints:

St John Maximovitch of Tobolsk in Siberia

St Paul Koniuskevych of Tobolsk

St Joasaph Horlenko of Beograd

St Dmitri Tuptalenko of Rostov

St Paissy Velichkovsky, Teacher of the Jesus Prayer whose disciples came from TEN different cultural backgrounds, including the Armenian and whose teachings revitalized the Churches of Ukraine, Roumania, Russia and others.

St Innocent of Irkutsk

St Philaret, Metropolitan of Kyiv

St Innocent and St Herman of Alaska

St Macarius, Missionary to the Altai (I once had a student of Altai background in one of my classes - she was Orthodox and her surname was simply "Altai" - Huzur Altai.)

And the great Elders of Orthodoxy who made themselves available for the spiritual benefit of so many people - especially St Seraphim of Sarov, St Theophil of the Kyiv Caves and others.

So missionary activity isn't a Western import.

It is a great Orthodox Eastern Christian tradition!

Sometimes, I think God uses us to bring people into our Church when we least expect it.

Yesterday, I received a letter from a person in Indiana who wrote to thank me for assisting him to enter the Eastern Catholic Church.

The thing is, I've never heard of him before yesterday!!

Is that cool or what?

Alex

Alex,

It surely is wonderful. May we all experience the joy you experience now.

Not being familiar with that entire list you have given me some research projects and I thank you for that.

I'm not sure if he would be called a missionary but his efforts brought many positive results but Patriarch Maximos IV Saigh certainly led an exemplary life.

Dan L

What about St. Nikolai Kasatkin?

Not technically missionaries but great evangelizers from whom we can learn much:

St. Seraphim of Sarov

St. John of Kronstadt

and do not forget, St John Maximovitch of Shanghai and San Francisco for his work in China and reviving the French Orthodox Church among many other Christ-like, heroic efforts

Dear Rilian,

St Nikolai Kassatkin - absolutely!

There are others. I used to have them all memorized . . . but the years have their impact . . .

St Stephen of Perm, an early Orthodox missionary in northern Rus'.

He saw people worshipping a tree and he then proceeded to chop it down.

However, he did build an Orthodox Church around the trunk of that tree - which served as the altar for the Church!

Cool or what? (I'm starting to talk like my students at school!).

Alex

Dear Brian,

Even though I'm not Orthodox, I knew about that!

St John Maximovitch founded the French and Netherlands Orthodox Churches and ordained a Spanish Orthodox priest.

He is also called "Apostle to the Diaspora" and when he was glorified a saint, Orthodox Christians on all continents honoured him in various languages - a true ecumenical Apostle of Christ!

And, best of all, he was Ukrainian!

We're not all bad, you know . . .

Also, you've reminded me of the Orthodox Apostle to Siberia, St Theophilus Leschynsky, another Ukie, who built, are you ready, more than 1600 churches and chapels in Siberia.

There are also many missionary-saints among the Orthodox New Martyrs of the communist Yoke, as well as the Orthodox "Bi-ritual" priests - those who served in Old Rite parishes as well.

Finally, let me catch my breath here . . . finally, St Paul of Tobolsk (I'm having trouble spelling his very ethnic sounding name and St Theophilus of Siberia had local Siberian Orthodox saints honoured in Ukraine and Russia e.g. St Basil of Mangazea. They brought his icon and Life to Kyiv and established his cult there as well as the cult of other Siberian saints.

The first Orthodox missionaries to Mongolia were the Princes St Theodore of Smolensk who married the Khan's daughter. His two sons, Saints David and Constantine, were half-Mongolian, and worked with their dad to spread Orthodox Christianity among the Mongols (which the Khan gave permission for).

Alex

I would also include St. Juvenaly and St. Jacob Netsvetov from the Alasks missions. Perhaps you could even consider St. Tikhon the New Confessor and St. Raphael of Brooklyn as missionary saints.

St. Martin of Tours I believe was from Eastern Europe (though considered a western saint) and did some things similar to St. Stephen.

St. Martin is one of my favorites from the early church along with St. Patrick and St. Nina the Enlightener of Georgia. Don't forget about SS. Cyril and Methodius as well.

I'm rambling now I guess. Anyway, I love missionary saints. My own name saint is St. Andrew the First Called.

Oh Alex,

We all know you are the most learned man on this Forum. Truly, I am always amazed at what you know about not only Eastern Christian theology and spirituality but history.

A Ukrainian "baba" influenced me by her example to become an Orthodox Christian. It was nothing she had to say but she lived the Gospel in her life and had an Orthodox heart and soul! So, Ukrainians (Catholic and Ortho) have been major influences along with the good Rusyn people!

Missionary stories (and legends ) are an interesting lot!

Would you mind telling us the "target" missions of these Eastern missionary Saints? Are any of them thriving Churches now or they have been abandoned altogether? Any "successor" missionaries in the areas?

These questions become relevant where the "fruits" of such missions are nowhere to be seen. They have to be appreciated by us present-day observers.

If not, then the labor of love by those intrepid, and sainted, missionaries has been terribly wasted.

Amado

Dear Brian,

I dunno, some think I'm too smart for my own good . . .

And I totally fell down on that thread about the different pectoral Crosses . . .

Wouldn't St Tikhon the Patriarch of Moscow qualify as a "missionary Saint?"

Alex

Dear Amigo Amado,

Well, St Stephen of Perm helped established the Russian Orthodox Church - I understand that Church is still going strong . . .

The Siberian Churches are still there, the Altai and several other peoples are still Orthodox Christian.

Even though the Tsarist government was Orthodox, it really did NOT support Orthodox missionary activity to the extent that popular history likes to talk about.

So the Orthodox missionaries were largely on their own - and achieved a great deal.

One reason for this was their method of acculturation.

The Alaskan Orthodox Mission emphasized, as did St Herman, the bringing in of local traditions and beliefs, as far as possible.

There was even the true story of a man who was unbaptized who told the Orthdox missionaries that everything they were telling him about the Holy Trinity he had already heard about from Three Men whom he was in the habit of meeting in the forest and conversing with . . .

Anyone know anything further about this?

Doesn't this send shivers up your spine, Amado?

Alex

Dear Rilian,

Good point!

One of my favourite pages of Christian missionary history is the Catholic Church of Korea.

As I understand it, Koreans went to China to locate the writings of Catholic missionaries there.

They really "dug" the whole Catholicism thing ( ).

They replicated everything they found in those diaries - including rosaries, Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament, neck crosses, Baptism etc.

The only problem was that their "bishops and priests" were not validly ordained nor could they be.

But they had them, to be sure . . .

Later Catholic missionaries to Korea were AMAZED by all this and tended to leave everything as they found it - except for the ordination and consecration of the clergy and hierarchy, of course.

Talk about, "Holy I-can't-wait-to-be-a-Catholic!"

One of the Korean Martyrs was a young man whose flesh was ripped by hooks.

As he stood before his judges who demanded that he reject Christ, the young boy simply removed a quite loose piece of his own flesh and tossed it on the table before the horrified judges . . .

Alex

St.John of Kronstadt originally intended become a missionary but then realized that the people around him, although nominal Christians, also need evangelization.

Photius

Dear Photius,

As you know, St John of Kronstadt (I once met an elderly woman in a wheelchair whose father or grandfather was personally healed by St John of Kronstadt) was known, at least once, to have asked his parishioners why they weren't approaching to come to Holy Communion.

When told they hadn't been to Confession, he asked them to start confessing their sins out loud and in public . . .

Would that have been a proper Confession in the Orthodox Church? (I'm assuming it was).

Is there such a thing as a public aspect to Confession in Orthodoxy?

Alex