1. The Opening of the Mission and the First Period of Its Activity (Cont.)

When His Grace the Metropolitan took up the execution of this important task entrusted to him, he fortunately understood at once what sort of people were needed for this and where to find them. It was necessary to find men who possessed sufficient self-denial to abandon all the comforts of civilized life and travel tens of thousands of versts through the impassable wilds of Siberia and across the turbulent waves of the boundless ocean to a distant edge of the world, to savages knowing no law, rebellious and bloodthirsty. For such self-renunciation, it was difficult to find anyone but monks, who had already renounced the world for the glory of God’s name. But not even all monks were capable for this work. The Metropolitan had a large choice among the brothers of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra, but he saw at once that for a distant mission men of a different caliber were needed than the brothers of a wealthy first-class monastery, intended to meet the church and religious needs of the capital, and which had received the particular imprint of the capital. For the difficult work of missionary service at the edge of the world among the wilds of savage peoples, men were needed who were accustomed to fierce struggle with stern nature, capable of enduring all hardships and trials, and equally well acquainted with the work of spreading the light of Orthodox faith among little enlightened aliens. Such men could be supplied precisely by the celebrated Valaam Monastery. This celebrated monastery, situated on one of the islands of Lake Ladoga, had for whole centuries served as an impregnable bulwark of Orthodoxy on the border between the Russian people and their northwestern neighbors, hostile to them both ethnically and in their faith. This monastery, as a fortress of brave warriors of Christ, had endured many terrible devastations from fanatical enemies of Orthodoxy, but it held its position unwaveringly, and not only did not fall before the attacks of the northwestern foes, but itself went on the offensive and spread Orthodoxy among the Finnish natives surrounding it. If during the terrible disorders of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries Orthodoxy was preserved in northwestern Russia, it owes this to the Valaam Monastery. Moreover, this monastery had long become renowned for its remarkable culture. With incredible efforts and wonderful persistence, it cultivated the hitherto inhospitable islands, overcame stern nature, and from the dark lairs of bears made a kind of earthly paradise, insofar as such a name applies to a monastery that had created its well-being by the hands of its own monks, who had labored in the sweat of their brow. Therefore, if any monastery could provide the most suitable missionaries for the newly discovered lands of North America, it was indeed Valaam, and His Grace Metropolitan Gabriel turned there precisely for the men needed for the newly forming mission. And the then abbot of the monastery, the celebrated restorer of the monastery, Father Nazarius, indeed provided reliable men. Among his monks was the hieromonk Iosaf Bolotov, who was indicated to His Grace the Metropolitan as especially suited for the mission. He was a well-educated man for his time. The son of a priest of Tver province, Kashin district, the village of Strashkov, Ilya Bolotov (born 1761), Ivan Bolotov (his secular name) early displayed talents, energy, and love of learning. Receiving his initial education at the Kashin theological school, he studied philosophical and theological sciences successively in two seminaries—the Tver and Yaroslavl—in the latter of which he completed his course among the best students. For some time he served as a teacher at the Uglich theological school. But then, feeling in himself a greater calling to serve God in direct proximity to Him, far from the world, he took monastic vows in 1786 with the name Iosaf and went to Valaam, where he intended to end his life in labors and prayers, when divine providence called him to the great and difficult work of enlightening pagans on the islands of the boundless ocean. When this position was offered to him, he accepted it as a humble obedience, and was appointed the head of the North American mission, composed of monks from Valaam itself, who did not hesitate to part with their native monastery to serve the cause of Christ. These monks were: the hieromonks Juvenal, Makarius, and Athanasius; the hierodeacons Stephen and Nectarius; and the monks Herman and Iosaf. When His Grace the Metropolitan made a report of the selection he had made, the Holy Synod approved it, and Iosaf in his capacity as head of the mission was elevated to the rank of archimandrite with the bestowal upon him of a “mitre and cross”—to enhance the dignity of spiritual authority, and the mission, blessed with the best wishes and blessings, set out on its distant journey[1].

Since the matter at hand was very important, and the honor of the Russian Orthodox Church, which was embarking upon the work of enlightening with the light of Christ’s truth the peoples of the New World, where already in other parts of it other faiths held sway and were establishing their beliefs, depended much on its success, the Holy Synod found it necessary to provide the mission with a special instruction, and this instruction is very interesting in terms of characterizing the views of the Holy Synod of that time on the tasks of Christian missionary work, and so it is not inappropriate to cite here some points from it.

“To you is entrusted (reads the first point) the apostolic duty. You and those entrusted to you, preserving this, shall receive a reward in heaven, such as the holy apostles were glorified. This reward of yours in heaven shall be composed of your turning those ignorant of God’s law to the truth of the Gospel. Therefore, in all your labors look upon the heavenly recompense and strengthen yourselves in the virtues of Christian life.” (§ 1). “When Jesus Christ grants you to see those knowing not God’s law, let your first care be to recommend yourselves through the example of virtue, so that they, observing your life, may be captivated by it.” (§ 6). “Strive, as far as possible, to increase this through assistance in their needs and in certain of their comforts, such as supplying them with things they desire, and making just decisions in their disputes, mollifying, so far as you can, their craving for satisfaction in their wrongs.” (§ 7). Then the method or approach itself is prescribed, which one must observe in inculcating to the savages religious and moral concepts, and it is remarkable for its applicability to the low level of the natives’ understanding. A Socratic, inductive method is recommended, whereby the savages are asked questions concerning elementary truths of religion in such a form or manner that their own thought naturally and almost imperceptibly is led to the recognition of the being of God as the highest Benefactor and righteous Judge, as well as the Savior, Jesus Christ, who came to earth from heaven to deliver people from their misery (§§8–15). For such instruction and exhortations, the time is recommended after morning and evening prayers, when the soul is most disposed to spiritual instruction, and thus in those “non-liturgical conversations,” the appropriateness of which was clearly well understood even then, although they received special development only now. This special instruction to the head of the North American mission was supplemented by a general instruction also given to missionaries in general, sent by various bishops for the conversion of unbelievers to the Christian faith, and from it may be noted an admonition bearing witness to what evangelical spirit penetrated the holy Orthodox Church. Making an exhortation regarding the scope of the content of faith in which it should be taught to the converted, this instruction reads: “You must teach the doctrine from the Gospel alone, Acts, and the Epistles of the Apostles, not burdening the mind of the converted, as if it were in infancy, with traditions, except those most necessary and serving as the foundation of the faith.” How truly apostolic simplicity sounds in this rule, and what striking contrast does it present to, for example, the activity of Roman missionaries, who first and foremost seek to instill in the newly converted the idea of the Pope as the head of the Church, with all the consequences arising from it!

Supplied in sufficient quantity with all necessary for church and religious service, both by Shelikhov himself and by other generous donors, particularly in Moscow, the mission set out on its distant journey in 1793. It traveled through Moscow along the great Siberian highway. Given the methods of travel available then, the journey was difficult and exhausting, as it required both riding on horseback and traveling thousands of versts in boats. But the missionaries bore these hardships with good cheer and even expressed satisfaction. Thus, the monk Herman, in his letter to the abbot of his native monastery, Father Nazarius, described with almost rapture how the brothers made their way through the Siberian wilds. “From Irkutsk,” he wrote, we traveled more than two thousand versts down the Lena River in complete comfort and ease. From Yakutsk to Okhotsk we traveled more than a thousand versts on horseback with the brothers, and all our belongings were carried by a hundred horses; though the river journey was pleasant, the horseback journey was even better: in forests, mountains, buerekas, we saw everything. Rich pastures everywhere and lovely weather—May, June, July; but only bears graze there, and we saw plenty of them; although they are docile, they are adept at bothering horses[2]. On June 13, the missionaries arrived at Okhotsk, where the boundless ocean opened before them, and where they awaited the company ship “Three Hierarchs.” The Valaam monks were familiar with this element as well, since in their boats they had become accustomed to boldly struggle with the furious waves of their native Lake Ladoga; but even that great lake was only a drop of water compared to the Great Ocean, and the missionaries experienced and saw much that was unusual. “What I had little heard of,” wrote the same Herman, “God granted me to see: whales

in the sea, orcas, beavers; and whales swimming and playing right near our ship on the surface of the water we saw quite a lot of. Small creatures—about fifteen fathoms long, and the head about five fathoms,” noted the author of the letter with humor. Advancing further among the chain of Aleutian and Kuril Islands, the missionaries had occasion here and there to stop and baptize natives (for example, on Unalaska Island), and finally, after enduring a very dangerous storm, on August 13, 1794, nine months after their departure from St. Petersburg, they arrived at last at the place of their spiritual labor, at Kodiak Island. Both the Russian traders and the newly baptized natives received their spiritual fathers with great joy. Shelikhov himself was delighted at the fulfillment of his idea. “I congratulate you on your guests,” he wrote to the company’s manager Baranov, “These guests are the sacred-archimandrite Iosaf with his brothers, chosen by the will of the Empress to preach God’s word in America. I am confident that you will feel no less pleasure than I do that that land, where I once labored and you now labor for the glory of our fatherland, will now see in these guests a reliable support for its future well-being. May God grant that this good is indeed accomplished and not later, while we have the good fortune to be in a position to accomplish some of the higher intentions of our wise Empress[3].”