The son
of a samurai and son-in-law of a Shinto priest, Takama Sawabe was a fierce
Japanese nationalist. He hated Christianity and all foreign influences in his
country. One day he angrily confronted the Orthodox Christian missionary to
Japan, a Russian priest-monk named Nicholas (Nicolai). Father Nicholas spoke to
him:
"Why
are you angry at me?" Fr. Nicholas asked Sawabe.
"All
you foreigners must die. You have come here to spy on our country and even
worse, you are harming Japan with your preaching," answered Sawabe.
"But
do you know what I preach?"
"No,
I don't," he answered.
"Then
how can you judge, much less condemn something you know nothing about? Is it
just to defame something you do not know? First listen to me, and then judge.
If what you hear is bad, then throw us out."
After
listening to Father Nicholas and learning about the Orthodox Christian way of
life, the nationalist samurai who had once endorsed Shintoism now believed in
Jesus Christ and was baptized, becoming the first person to embrace Orthodox
Christianity in Japan. At his baptism, he appropriately received the Christian
name Paul, after St. Paul, one of the Church's greatest Apostles who, before
his conversion, had used his authority to violently persecute the Christian
Church. Paul Sawabe would eventually be ordained an Orthodox Christian priest.
You can read about Father Paul (pictured here) in a brief article on the
Japanese National Diet Library website dedicated to Portraits of Modern
Japanese Historical Figures, which includes another photo, and on Orthodoxwiki.
Father
Nicholas, the missionary who taught Paul the Orthodox Christian Faith and
baptized him, was later consecrated as bishop and is today known as St.
Nicholas of Japan.
According
to the the book, Missionaries, Monks, and Martyrs, St. Nicholas worked hard to
learn about Japanese language and culture:
Along
with language learning, Nicholas studied the culture and history of Japan. He
read their mythology and literature, and learned about Confucianism, Shintoism,
and Buddhism. He even attended the sermons of popular Buddhist preachers and
public storytellers in hopes of understanding the mind of the Japanese. For
close to seven years he continued this intense study. Eventually, he became one
of the foremost scholars of the Japanese language and went on to translate
service and prayer books, catechism books, and the Scripture, as he waited for
opportunities of evangelism to open within the country.
Source: http://symeonsjournal.blogspot.com.by/2006/08/orthodox-christianity-in-japan.html
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