What would St Nicholas of Japan say about 'SMO'?

Did St Nicholas of Japan support Russia in its imperial wars? Photo: UOJ

On February 16, the Church commemorates St. Nicholas of Japan, a man who practically single-handedly established the Orthodox Church in Japan, translated the Holy Scriptures and liturgical books, opened a theological seminary, created 260 communities from scratch, and managed to earn the love and respect of tens of thousands of Japanese people.

Today, the name of the saint is especially on everyone's lips. In the Russian Orthodox Church, he is often mentioned in connection with the war that Russia is waging in Ukraine. And, strangely enough, St Nicholas of Japan is made an example to Ukrainians.

Some well-known theologians and missionaries seriously compare the situation of the saint during the Russo-Japanese War with the situation in which the leadership of the UOC found itself after the “SMO” started. They say that St Nicholas of Japan, amid a military conflict, not only did not cease to commemorate the Patriarch Holy Synod but he could not even be persuaded to condemn Russia's actions.

So today it would be good to clarify if the comparison of Archbishop Nicholas of Japan's position and that of the UOC is appropriate. And most importantly – how did he feel about the military actions of his Motherland?

"Pray to God that He may grant victory to your Japanese army."

First of all, it should be said that it is incorrect to compare the saint and Ukrainian hierarchs, if only because the bishop was a guest in Japan, and the clergy of the UOC are Ukrainians whose relatives and friends are suffering and dying in the war.

Perhaps, this is not even the main thing. Being Russian, being a patriot, the saint nevertheless urged his disciples to pray for the victory of their country.

"Pray to God that He may grant victories to your imperial army, thank God for the victory granted, donate to military needs, whoever has to go to battle, not sparing their lives, fight not out of hatred for the enemy but out of love for your compatriots, remembering the words of the Saviour: Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends' (John 15:13). In short, do everything that your love for your fatherland requires of you," he wrote in his diary for 1904.

As we can see, the saint does not give any indication that Russia's war with Japan is "sacred"; he does not mention the prayer of the Liturgy of St. Basil the Great for the subjugation of "barbarian tongues desiring war" to the Russian emperor. Although it would be very appropriate here, as Japan is a pagan country that fought against Russia with great enthusiasm.

But what does the saint write next?

"All people are equally children of the Heavenly Father and brothers among themselves."

"But besides the earthly homeland, we also have a Heavenly Fatherland. People belong to it regardless of nationality because all people are equally children of the Heavenly Father and brothers among themselves. This Fatherland of ours is the Church, of which we are equal members and through which the children of the Heavenly Father indeed make one family... I am not here as a servant of Russia but as a servant of Christ," he addressed his Japanese flock.

Why are these words particularly important for us today? Because right now they are extremely relevant, and right now we desperately need them. Our primary Fatherland is neither Russia nor Ukraine nor Japan. Our Fatherland is Heaven. That's where our true family is. But what should be the next thought?

That a Christian cannot destroy members of their true Family for the sake of their earthly homeland. Rather, it's not even about the homeland, but about the people who determine its policy.

What did Saint Nicholas write about such people?

"The Russian Government finds everything insufficient and expands its possessions more and more."

"God gave Russia a land that makes a sixth part of the world and stretches uninterruptedly across the continent, without any islands. And it'd be great to possess it peacefully, to develop its wealth, to use it for the good of its people, and care for the material and spiritual well-being of its inhabitants. But the Russian Government finds everything insufficient and expands its possessions more and more; and by what means!... 'Why do you need Korea?' I once asked Admiral Dubasov. 'By natural right, it should be ours,' he replied, 'when a man stretches his legs, he is restrained by what is at his feet; we are growing and stretching our legs, Korea is at our feet, we cannot help but reach out to the sea and make Korea ours.'"

Replace "Korea" with "Ukraine," and it sounds as if it were about our days. Instead of caring for people on its vast territory, today Russia is annexing new lands one after another. Just at the beginning of the 20th century, Russian soldiers were told that they were conquering new lands, fighting "for the tsar and the Fatherland." At the beginning of the 21st century, it is also a "war for the Fatherland" but now against the "world evil".

But did St. Nicholas support such ultra-patriotic sentiments of his contemporaries, which resound loudly even today?

"And you, my poor Homeland, know that you deserve to be beaten and reviled... Why do you lack honesty and piety? Why don't you attract the love and protection of God but rather provoke the wrath of God?... God has left Russia to be ridiculed by its enemies, as punishment for forgetting God and His Commandments," writes the saint in his diary.

And his inner torments about his Homeland relate not only to the unsuccessful actions of the Russian army. Living in Japan for many years, he observed the spiritual problems of Russia and Russians from the outside, problems that today, over a century later, have hardly changed.

"God punishes Russia, turning away from it because it has turned away from Him. What wild frenzy of atheism, of the bitterest enmity against Orthodoxy and all mental and moral filth now in Russian literature and Russian life! Infernal darkness has enveloped Russia, and despair sets in: will a light ever come? Are we capable of historical life? Without God, without morality, without patriotism, a people cannot exist independently. And in Russia, judging by its disgusting not only secular but also spiritual literature, faith in a personal God, in the immortality of the soul, is fading away; it is a stinking corpse by morality, it has almost completely turned into filthy livestock... Frenzy has seized it, and there is no help for it, because its most evil frenzy is against God, the very Name of Whom it tramples in the mud, its lips breathe blasphemy."

These words, written in 1904, may seem excessively emotional to us now. But the restrained and laconic archbishop would hardly have spoken them without reason. He witnessed the captivity, suffering, and death of thousands of ordinary Russian sailors sent to the bloodbath of Port Arthur for the interests of the empire. He knew that the clergy fully supported these interests.

Has anything changed after 120 years? Do they say in the Russian Orthodox Church that "we have a Heavenly Fatherland" to which "people of all nationalities belong"? Do they say in the ROC that they are "not servants of Russia, but servants of Christ"?

Perhaps they do. But these voices are drowning in the choir of completely different "Orthodox" songs: "333," "Arise, Country" and so on.

And 11 years before the Bolshevik Revolution, the saint wrote these lines: "I despair for the Orthodox Church and Russia! Are we condemned by the Judgment of God to be torn apart and destroyed? It seems so!"

Will it be different today?

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