Joasaf Bolotov

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Joasaf Bolotow (birth name Joann Iljitsch Bolotow , Russian Иоанн Ильич Болотов ; born January 22, 1761 , † May 1799 ) was a Russian Orthodox missionary , bishop of Kodiak and vicar of the Diocese of Irkutsk .

Joasaf came in 1794 as head of a group of Orthodox missionaries from the Valaam Monastery of Alaska . Under extremely primitive conditions, he and his confreres founded the first branch of the Russian Orthodox Church in America. He was recalled to Irkutsk and appointed Vicar Bishop of Kodiak, but he did not reach his destination as he was killed in a shipwreck on the way back to Alaska.

Life

Ioan Iljitsch Bolotow was born on January 22, 1761 in Straschkow in Ujesd Kashin ( Russian Кашинский уезд ) in Tver Oblast . His father was the local priest . He received his first training at the church school in a monastery in Kashin. He then attended seminars in Tver and Yaroslavl , where he graduated with honors. He worked for four years as a teacher at the church school in Uglich . Then he decided to live as a monk and entered the Tolga Monastery , where he received the tonsure in 1786 and the name "Joasaf".

As a result, he went to a monastery in Uglich and from there to Valaam monastery. When he as a deacon ordained was followed priest is unknown. He was raised to the rank of Archimandrite in 1783 . When a call was made to assemble a mission team for Alaska , Joasaph was selected to lead the force. Four monk priests, a monk deacon, two monks, and two servants were sent with him.

The trip to Alaska lasted ten months, and they reached Kodiak on September 24, 1794. There they met different conditions than the initiator of the enterprise, Grigory Ivanovich Shelichov , had promised them. Kodiak village was far more primitive than described, and the church that had been promised was not yet built. The group experienced many grievances and violence by the Russian settlers against the indigenous Sugpiaq , so that Joasaf reported to the state and church authorities in Russia. Thereupon an enmity developed between the village chief, Alexander Andrejewitsch Baranow , and Joasaf and his missionaries.

Despite the adverse conditions, the missionary group was very successful in evangelizing the indigenous people and expanded its scope to the mainland. However, these efforts were also life-threatening. Confrere Juvenal became Alaska's first martyr while serving as a wandering missionary on the mainland in 1796 .

When the holiest ruling synod examined the situation of the mission in 1796, it was decided to appoint an auxiliary bishop for Alaska and Joasaf was elected bishop of Kodiak. Not until 1798 did the news and instructions for his installation reach him. He had to return to Irkutsk to be appointed bishop, where he was ordained on April 10, 1799. This ceremony was unusual in that, due to the isolation of Irkutsk, the Most Holy Synod only gave instructions for Benjamin , the Bishop of Irkutsk, and the latter consecrated without any further co-consecrators. It was the only guaranteed consecration in the history of the Church of Russia that was performed only by a bishop.

But the newly consecrated Bishop Joasaf was never to reach his destination because he and his companions, the priest monk Makari and the monk deacon Stephan, went down with their ship Phoenix in a storm off the coast of Alaska between May 21 and 24, 1799. The ship was carrying vital supplies for the people and the colony at Kodiak. The loss was a severe setback for the Alaska Orthodox Mission and the colony. The Most Holy Synod did nothing to replace Joasaf and officially closed the Kodiak Bishopric in 1811 and lasted for another thirty years before a new hierarchy was appointed for Alaska.

literature

  • CJ Tarasar (ed.): Orthodox America 1794-1976 Development of the Orthodox Church in America , In: The Orthodox Church in America. Syosett, New York 1975.
  • Hector Chevigny: Russian America - The Great Alaskan Venture, 1741-1867 . Viking Press, New York 1965.
  • A Monk of Valaam: The Russian Orthodox Religious Mission in America, 1794-1837 , (1894). Translated by Colin Bearne. Kingston, Ont .: Limestone 1978.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Chevigny, 65.
  2. ↑ Wadim Passek: Очерки Россіи, издавлемые Вадимомъ Пассекомъ , Vol. V: "Распространеніе православмер православной вѣры" Авмеръвѣры "↑ Moscow 1842.
personal data
SURNAME Bolotov, Joasaf
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bolotow, Joann Iljitsch; Болотов, Иоанн Ильич (Russian)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Russian Orthodox missionary, Bishop of Kodiak and Vicar of the Diocese of Irkutsk
DATE OF BIRTH January 22, 1761
DATE OF DEATH May 1799