sanctity of Nicholas Kasatkin

[jechenaudrey]

I wonder about the sanctity of Nicholas Kasatkin and his ambitions in Japan, did he come out of pure love to save Japanese souls
or did he have a pure secular motive for doing missionary work? Since they did not establish monasteries from the beginning? they he
confess the true faith to the Japanese whilst in Japan? Jeff C.

[ioannis_theologos]

Well, I don't see why you shouldn't recognize the ROCA Synod's glorification of St Nicholas, which took place at the same time as that of St John of Shanghai and San Francisco and St Innocent of Moscow. If you read his life (which can be found online from an archive of Orthodox America), I think it's very clear his missionary activities were motivated by a pure love of the Church and of his Japanese flock. In fact, political motivations can be completely excluded from what happened during the war with Russia: he counselled his flock to fight for their country (Japan), even though they were at war with the leader of the Orthodox world at the time, the Tsar of Russia!
Incidentally, St Nicholas was the great uncle of Fr Eugene Lyzlov, the former rector of my local ROCOR parish (Our Lady, Joy of All Who Sorrow, Philadelphia, PA). Sadly, that parish is now under the MP, but we still have many relics, including several of St Nicholas.
Jonathan

[jechenaudrey]

would he have consolled the flocked during world war 2 in the light of the nanking atrocities and
japanese aggression around the asia? would he have prayed for them to murder chinese civilians?

[ioannis_theologos]

Most likely he would again have instructed them to fight for their homeland, without doing anything contrary to the Law of God. This is the teaching of the Orthodox Church. So no, of course he wouldn't have advised them to commit barbarities such as what happened at Nanking and elsewhere. In any case, this is utterly a red herring, since as far as I know, the Japanese did not behave particularly badly in the 1905 war and this wasn't an issue then.

[jechenaudrey]

then again so very little asian saints except for the chinese martyrs during the boxer rebellion. why? it is very simple, they were not given the same confession of faith
that was handed to Kiev Rus by St Cyril and Methodius or slightly altered from the original Greek confessions of faith. Jeff C.

[ioannis_theologos]

Well, surely the most likely explanation for the small number of Chinese Orthodox saints is because Orthodox Christianity only recently came to China (missionaries from the Church of Persia had come already in the late first millennium, but I think they had already fallen away into Nestorianism by that point, and of course modern Papist and Protestant missionaries don't count). There was nothing different about the confession of faith held by these Chinese Orthodox compared with ancient Russia.

[jechenaudrey]

Then this does not answer the question why Nicholas Kasatkin established a specifically tailored racial church without monasteries for a people
who are culturally and institutionally xenophobic as the ancient athenians themselves. Nor does it explain why Nicholas Kasatkin was unilaterlly
glorified by MP and ROCOR outside of Japan without any input from the Japanese believers themselves...isnt this how the Vatican proceeds in
her "canonization process" for her saints? Given the fact that Nicholas Kasatkin did NOT perform miraculous feats both in the body and out of the body,
isn't his work not at all like many of his roman catholic counterparts or prophet muhammed--does this bring disrespute or even suspicion to his
sanctity both as a bishop and as a saint?