St. Nicholas of Japan

Ivan Kasatkin became a monk and went to Hakodate in 1861 as chaplain to the Russian consulate. He spent eight years learning Japanese language and culture, and his first convert was a samurai named Takuma Sawabe, who had come to kill him. He moved to Tokyo, translated the services and Scriptures, and built Holy Resurrection Cathedral, which the Japanese call Nikolai-do. During the Russo-Japanese War he stayed with his flock. At his death in 1912 the Japanese Church had over 30,000 faithful.

• Feast: February 3 (New Calendar)
• Lived: 1836–1912
• Place: Tokyo