Handout #254

Orthodox Mission in Siberia

At the beginning of my life as a missionary I wanted above all to baptize as many people as possible, and I was very peeved if there was no one in a village to baptize. But as time went on, a great change came over me. This is how it happened. 

I had once gone to visit a Mongolian to lie down in his hut. Among a number of idols hung an image of the Blessed Virgin with the child Jesus in her arms. 'Are you baptized?' I asked him. 'Yes, 'he replied. Toui nyre khyma?' I asked him again. 'John, ' the Mongolian replied. 'Then why do you have idols in your hut?' You should only have Christian images, and you should pray to the true God, Jesus Christ. 

''My father, that is what I used to do, and I prayed only to your Russian god But then my wife died, and then my son. I lost a lot of horses. I was told that our old Mongolian god was very angry with me, and that he had made my wife and son die and driven away my horses. So now I address my prayers to him and to your Russian God. You know, father, that is now very painful and said to me, to have changed my god for yours, a new god.

 And as he said this, the Mongolian began to cry. I was very sorry for him, the point of suffering myself and at the same time for all those who were like him. Then I suddenly understood what it is like to steal someone's soul, to rob him of his most precious possession, to snatch from him and deprive him of his holy of holies, his natural philosophy and religion, giving him nothing in return but a new name and a cross on his chest. The Mongolian of whom I speak seemed to me to be the most wretched and unhappy man in the world, deprived of his old religion and abandoned to the chances of destiny. From then on I promised myself that I would never baptize the native population, but only preach Christ and the gospel to them. Archimandrite Spiridion, Mes missions en Siberie, 1950. 

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