Fasting Rules
Meat
Abstain
Fish
Allowed
Dairy
Abstain
Oil
Allowed
Wine
Allowed
Saints & Commemorations
Begin Dormition Fast
St Nicholas, enlightener of Japan (1912)
Born in Russia in 1836, he became one of the great Orthodox missionaries of modern times. As a boy, he resolved to become a missionary in the far East. With the counsel and blessing of Bishop Innocent of Siberia and Alaska, he went to Japan in 1861 and joined a small Russian mission there. Though the mission’s official purpose was to minister to the Russian consular community, the consul-general who invited Hieromonk Nikolai hoped to bring the light of the Orthodox Faith to the Japanese people as well. R
Born in Russia in 1836, he became one of the great Orthodox missionaries of modern times. As a boy, he resolved to become a missionary in the far East. With the counsel and blessing of Bishop Innocent of Siberia and Alaska, he went to Japan in 1861 and joined a small Russian mission there. Though the mission’s official purpose was to minister to the Russian consular community, the consul-general who invited Hieromonk Nikolai hoped to bring the light of the Orthodox Faith to the Japanese people as well. Realizing that he could only hope to convert the Japanese people if they understood one another well, Fr Nikolai immersed himself in the study of Japanese thought, culture and language. Over the course of his life he translated most of the Bible and most of the Orthodox services into Japanese, and became a fluent speaker of the language. He encountered much resistance: Preaching of Christian doctrine was officially banned in Japan, and a Samurai once approached him with the words “Foreigners must die!” It was this same Samurai who later became his first Japanese priest. In 1880 he was elevated to Bishop of Japan. During the Russo-Japanese war he remained in Japan and labored successfully to overcome nationalist strife that might have harmed or destroyed the Church in Japan. He encouraged all his Japanese faithful to pray for the Japanese armed forces, though he explained that as a Russian he could not do so, and excluded himself from all public services for the duration of the war. He sent Russian-speaking Japanese priests to the prison camps to minister to Russian prisoners of war. At the time of his repose in 1912, after forty-eight years in Japan, St Nikolai left a Cathedral, eight churches, more than 400 chapels and meeting houses, 34 priests, 8 deacons, 115 lay catechists, and 34,110 Orthodox faithful. The Church of Japan is now an autonomous Orthodox Church under the mantle of the Moscow Patriarchate.
Troparion - Tone 4
You shared in the ways of the Apostles and sat upon their throne, / O faithful and divinely-wise servant of Christ, / chosen harp of the divine Spirit, vessel overflowing with the love of Christ, / and Enlightener of Japan, O Holy Hierarch Nicholas, Equal of the Apostles, / entreat the Life-Giving Trinity on behalf of all your flock, and for the entire world.
Kontakion - Tone 4
As a colleague of the Apostles in their labors and rewards, / the Church honors you with love, O Holy Hierarch Nicholas Equal of the Apostles. / For having laid the foundation of the beginning of Orthodoxy in pagan Japan by your many deeds, / you increased the number of those who are saved; / and as is meet, after your death God received you into the abode of His Apostles. / Therefore we beseech you: / “Pray to the Lord that your work may continue to abide unshakably for eternity, / and that all those doomed to perdition may enter the bosom of the Orthodox Church, / for the peace of the world and for the salvation of our souls.”
Procession of the Lifegiving Cross; 7 Maccabean Martyrs
Scripture Readings
☩Epistle
Romans 14:6-9
6
He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord; and he that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he doth not regard it. He that eateth, eateth to the Lord, for he giveth God thanks; and he that eateth not, to the Lord he eateth not, and giveth God thanks. For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself. For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord’s. For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and living.
☩Gospel
Matthew 15:32-39
32
Then Jesus called his disciples unto him, and said, I have compassion on the multitude, because they continue with me now three days, and have nothing to eat: and I will not send them away fasting, lest they faint in the way. And his disciples say unto him, Whence should we have so much bread in the wilderness, as to fill so great a multitude? And Jesus saith unto them, How many loaves have ye? And they said, Seven, and a few little fishes. And he commanded the multitude to sit down on the ground. And he took the seven loaves and the fishes, and gave thanks, and brake them, and gave to his disciples, and the disciples to the multitude. And they did all eat, and were filled: and they took up of the broken meat that was left seven baskets full. And they that did eat were four thousand men, beside women and children. And he sent away the multitude, and took ship, and came into the coasts of Magdala.
Liturgical data sourced from OCA.org and orthocal.info