Monday, October 4, 2004
Hieromartyr Hierotheos, Bishop of Athens
1st at Vespers, Innocent: Proverbs 3:13-16 Epistle: Philippians 1:1-7
Gospel: St. Luke 4:37-44
Proverbs 3:13-16 LXX. Let us ask: in the Church's life, who are the R&D
workers, those concerned with research and development? One may rightly consider scholars or
monastics as R&D workers, but a real case can be made for missionaries as the front line of the
Church's research effort - those men and women who have gone out to establish heart-to-heart
contacts with foreign cultures, languages, peoples, and lifestyles. Missionaries have had to
decipher different ethnic themes, unusual social interests, and life styles unknown in the lands of
their birth. Not only must such research be carried on in the lands to which missionaries go, but
also means must be found to convey the whole Gospel in such settings. Thus, by trial and error,
missionaries bring the unvarying truth of Orthodoxy to new communities.
A shining example of a missionary with a true R&D spirit was John Veniaminov, a native
Russian, born and raised in Western Siberia. After seminary, he heard the call to share the true
Faith versts away to the east in Alaska, that remote, new, and wild Russian colony across the
northern Pacific Ocean in America. He trekked east across Siberia to answer that call, taking his
young wife with him to the coast and to a ship for crossing to the Aleutian Islands.
Father Veniaminov (the Russian form of the name Benjamin), was a man who found true wisdom
early in life. Therefore, he was able to bring Orthodox Christianity prudently to the pagan,
animist peoples of the Aleutians and mainland Alaska (vs. 13). Material support for his ministry
and family, including a tiny salary, was supplied by the Russian-American Company, a fur-trading enterprise that managed the Alaska colony. When the question of accepting gifts of
money or furs from his parishioners arose, although the company manager was willing for the
Priest to receive these, Fr. Veniaminov declined, since to do so "could in some way weaken the
power and sanctity of many decrees in the eyes of the local islanders." For Fr. John it was "better
to traffic for [wisdom], than for treasures of gold and silver" (vs. 14).
The Lord richly blessed Fr. John's work with many converts, and then, in April of 1838, aided his
voyage half-way around the world. He went to seek the support of the Russian Holy Synod in St.
Petersburg for additional helpers for the work in the far eastern colony. As a result, after two
years in European Russia, and with the sad news of his wife's repose in Alaska, he was tonsured
and successively elevated to Archimandrite and made Bishop, with the name Innocent, for a new
Diocese of Kamchatka, the Kuril and Aleutian Islands, with his See at Sitka in SE Alaska.
In his refocused ministry, the new Bishop demonstrated, as he traveled by kayak, dog-sled, back-pack, grappling hook, and boots, that "no evil thing shall resist [wisdom]: she [being] well known
to all that approach her' (vs. 15). After ten years of untiring labor and travel, he could report that
"the spiritual condition of the flock in the Diocese, which consists primarily of recently and
newly-converted peoples (of a total number of 23,230 persons only 5,820 are Russians or creoles,
including clergy), is comforting now as in the past."
After ten more years in his vast, two-continent field, he was elevated to Archbishop, given
several assisting Bishops and a residence in Siberia at Yakutsk. From there he strove to
Christianize the Yakut people while managing his far-flung Archdiocese. By the age of 67, as he
was feeling age encroach upon him, he received a telegraph announcing that "the Emperor deigns
to appoint your Eminence Metropolitan of Moscow." His new post gave him opportunity to
found the Russian Missionary Society for furthering righteousness and mercy (vs. 16).
Through the prayers of Bishop Innocent, O Lord, Jesus Christ our God, have mercy upon us and
upon Thy Holy Church throughout all the world and save us. Amen.
