Metrophanes, Chi Sung
Metrophanes, Chi Sung and family | |
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Born | December 10, 1855 China |
Died | June 10, 1900 China |
Venerated in | Eastern Orthodox Church |
Feast | June 11 |
Metrophanes, Chi Sung (Cháng Yángjí,常楊吉, his Chinese name is also sometimes translated as Tsi Chung) or Mitrophan (December 10, 1855 – June 10, 1900) was the first
Metrophanes was raised by his mother, Marina, and grandmother, Ekaterina, after his father died when he was a child. He was a shy, unassuming man who was educated for the priesthood at a Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in China. Church authorities urged him to become a priest, but they persuaded him to do so with difficulty because he did not believe he had the talents necessary. "A man of poor talent and little virtue, how dare I accept this great rank?" he said. Metrophanes was ordained by Nikolai, Bishop of Japan in 1880. He helped with translation of liturgical books into Chinese from Russian and proofreading. Eventually he suffered a breakdown and settled outside the mission, receiving half of his salary. Many people took advantage of his goodwill or mocked him.
Boxer Rebellion
During the Boxer Rebellion, the Boxers burned down his print shop and church site. He tried to encourage fellow members of the church during the rebellion. On the night of June 10, rebels surrounded his house and killed Metrophanes along with many of the seventy people inside.
His son Isaiah or Esaias, who served in the Chinese military, was beheaded on June 7 near the
Canonizations
Hundreds of other Chinese Orthodox Christians were also murdered during the Boxer Rebellion and are also considered martyrs by their church and remembered with their bishop.[4][5] Roman Catholic and Protestant Chinese and foreign missionaries were killed as well. Though the communist government in China criticized the Roman Catholic Church for canonizing 120 Chinese and foreign martyrs on October 1, 2000, similar criticism had not occurred two months earlier during the Orthodox canonizations. The smaller size of the Eastern Orthodox Church, its lower profile in China, the fact that the Roman Catholic cannonizations happened on the National Day of the People's Republic of China, and/or the better relations between the Orthodox Church and the Chinese government may account for the disparity.[6]
References
- ^ ""The Chinese Martyrs", American Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Diocese of the U.S.A." Archived from the original on 2018-12-22. Retrieved 2019-04-02.
- ^ a b "Accounts of the Martyrs of the Chinese Orthodox Church". www.orthodox.cn. Retrieved 10 April 2018.
- ^ All Saints of America Archived 2008-07-08 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Imperfectly Ordinary: The Holy Chinese Martyrs of the Boxer Rebellion". Archived from the original on 2013-07-07. Retrieved 2013-07-07.
- ^ Some controversy exists concerning the cultural sensitivity of one prayer concerning those martyrs, see http://www.orthodox.cn/catechesis/troparion_en.htm
- ^ "Orthodox Canonization of Chinese Martyrs not Criticized by China". www.orthodoxchina.info. Retrieved 10 April 2018.