The letter of Holy Hierarch Nikolai of Japan to Archimandrite Leonid (Kavelin)¹, Father Superior² of Holy Trinity Sergius Lavra³ [On sending a bell ringer to Tokyo Cathedral of Resurrection of Christ "Nikorai-Do"—MDG⁵]

Your Reverence, highly respected Father Superior,

By the intercession of Christ God and Holy Father Sergius, in whom He is pleased, I beg you to help the extreme need the Mission is experiencing nowadays.

You can, can and can, without any doubt.

Judge it yourself: the cathedral here, which is being constructed by the Mission, is almost ready; not later than in June, it should be consecrated; the bells are lifted up and installed, and they are visible for all the capital, for the Cathedral is located on a hill in the midst of the capital. I was sure, that there will be no difficulty in acquiring a bell ringer from Moscow or St. Petersburg; when the time comes, I wrote both to Moscow and to St. Petersburg several times, and from both capitals have simultaneously received by cable the answer: “We do not have a bell ringer.”.

I am simply in despair. If I knew it beforehand, I would not have lifted the bells up. Now what shall I do? We can toll a bell, but who can ring eight untrained? And such a shame would be on us that pagans and Christians of other denominations would be laughing at us. “They have lifted up the bells, but can’t use them!”

So, for God’s sake and Holy Hierarch Sergius, help with our trouble; send a bell ringer. If you cannot give him forever, then send him for a while until the Japanese will learn to ring here. Anyhow, rescue us from disgrace and enable us to adorn our divine services and feasts with harmonious trezvons. In fact, with eight bells it is possible to ring truly a beautiful (“krasnyi”) peal at one time comforting a soul and touched by grief and at other times inspiring a festal and triumphant mood.

And at your Lavra, obviously, there are those skilful for it—whether monks or lay people, but, certainly, they are there; and their service, blessed and established by Church as necessary, is therefore an important service. In your place, perhaps, it is not so much appreciated, because there are many bell ringers there, but o how highly it would be appreciated if suddenly for some reason there were no bell ringers, just as we do not have them now, while the bells demand them.

So, again and again persistently I ask you, give a bell ringer for the Mission. We need a person who surely can artistically ring all eight bells for feasts and fewer bells for ferial days—in other words a true master in his art.

If you would grant him for us for some time, then please determine for how long he can stay here; in any case, please don’t set it less that two years so that the Japanese here would be able fully to learn his art. His round trip transportation will be on the account of the Mission; here he will receive room and a salary of up to thirty rubles a month.

His trip to Japan will be taken care of by Feodor Nikolayevich Bystrov, Protopriest of Mikhailovskii Inzhenernyi Castle and a St. Petersburg associate of the Mission, who has already been written to concerning this matter. Here, with God’s help, we will try to protect him and return him to you back healthy and unharmed. But for the Mission it would be truly a great happiness and an unforgettable benefaction from you, if you would give a good man permanently.

The bell ringer here can be at the same time the keeper of the cathedral, a vestry and all sacred things; if he proves to be a trustworthy person, he then could be made responsible for all the cathedral, the more especially since I often need to leave Tokyo, and the other missionary is constantly occupied with educational matters and also sometimes leaves Tokyo on affairs of service.

And I ask you to hasten diligently with this business; so that it may be the bell ringer will arrive here in time for the consecration of the cathedral.

Anyway, whoever this person is, he indispensably should visit Nikolai Dmitrievich Finlyandskii in Moscow, who has cast bells for the Mission and should give instructions concerning their usage.

I’ve asked Mr. Finlyandskii that he by all means would, so to say, examine the bell ringer, who is coming here.

If the Lavra bell ringer is very skillful, he will be pleased to show his art to Mr. Finlyandskii; if it so happens, that he needs some extra learning (for example, he could be skilful in the use of six to seven or ten to twelve bells, but has not ring only eight bells until now), he would then be able to do that at Mr. Finlyanskii’s plant yard where sufficient number of bells seem always to be hung for testing.

If the bell ringer would stay here for permanent service and appeared to be a person very good and useful for Church needs, then his salary might be increased with time to 40 rubles and even more.

Forgive me, highly respected Father Superior, that I trouble you with this request, but once again I ask, and still ask, and one thousand times I’m ready to ask: give us bell ringer. What should I do?

My only hope is for your Lavra, since Moscow and Petersburg have refused! I also cannot imagine what to think if even the Lavra should refuse. Then what? To remove bells from the belltower and recast them into some things more suitable for use? It would be then really an unprecedented church scandal. And it should be coming, unless you give a bell ringer–what else then are bells for?

Some time ago I once knew how to ring five bells and, being a rector of the consular church in Hakodate on order of the consul and with money collected from our warships I have cast these five bells (almost all of them even now serve the church in Hakodate).

I rang trezvons myself until the Japanese learned to do that; I was ringing trezvons when going to the church, and again when leaving it; but here, unfortunately, it is no longer possible to give place to such paternalism—the belltower is too high, and I have even forgotten how to ring five bells.

So, what to do with the bells? When Japanese persist with questions of “What these things are for”, what should I answer? It would be necessary to remove them from the bell tower if we will not have a bell ringer. Was there ever such a shame in Orthodox Church?

So, deliver our Church from this– give a bell ringer!

When you determine the person who is to depart for here, first accept from me a deep bow to the ground with tears, and warm, sincere and most cordial gratitude for your kind disposition toward and your kind dead for the Mission, then send this man to N.D. Finlyandskii– that’s all the bother I dare to trouble you with for now.

When Mr. Finlyandskii finds him absolutely reliable in skillful use of eight bells he will inform Fr. F. Bystrov, and the latter will notify the bell ringer where to go and when; he will also take care of all bell ringer related charges.

I don’t think that it would happen that even this, my request regarding bell ringer, will remain in vain, however I consider it necessary to mention, that in case that even in the Lavra no bell ringer is found for the Mission, be so kind to inform N.D. Finlyandskii of that.

I take boldness to offer here the last photo of the construction of the cathedral being taken by the Mission. However, now there is no need for the Mission to take photographs of the cathedral: they are on sale in the city at all photographers, being taken from different angles and at different distances. I also attach the data concerning our bells, since these data probably are not superfluous for the bell ringer.

Asking for your holy prayers to Holy Father Sergius and to others in whom the Lord is pleased, who rest in the Lavra, for the Mission, for all the Church here around, and for me, a sinner–I witness here my deep true respect and cordial devotion to you and honor to be your most obedient servant, postulant, and molitvennik⁴.

Nikolai, Bishop of Revel, Head of the Russian Spiritual Mission in Japan. Russian Spiritual Mission in Japan. Tokyo, 1890, March the 8th.

1. Lev Aleksandrovich Kavelin grew up in a noble family. As a young man he entered the Moscow Cadet Corps, and upon graduation was sent to serve in the Volyn Guard Regiment.

He had retired with the rank of Captain, and settled in the Holy Entrance of the Theotokos Kozelskii Optin Monastry (Optina Pustyn), where he was tonsured as a monk.

In time he was a head of Russian Spiritual Mission in Jerusalem where he remained for several years as the abbot of Resurrection of Christ Novoierusalimskii Monastery, and thereafter as Father Superior of Holy Trinity Sergius Lavra.

By the end of his earthly life he was a well-known as a hagiographer, historian, and writer.

2. Father Superior is the title of the acting head of the Holy Trinity Sergius Lavra, who directs Lavra when its usually absent nominal abbot is out of the Lavra. The nominal abbot of the Lavra before 1918 was the Metropolitan of Moscow and Kolomenskoye, and since 1918the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia.

3. Holy Trinity Sergius Lavra, is one of the largest and is the highest ranking monastery within the Russian Orthodox Church. It was founded by St. Sergius of Radonezh together with his brother Stephan in 1337 at the Hill of Makovets located about 44 miles (70 km) from Moscow.

4. St. Nicholas uses here the Russian word molitvennik, which does not have an English equivalent, but means a person who is diligently praying to God for others. [D.N. Ushakov's Russian Language Unabridged Dictionary, 4 Vol., M.: 1935-1940.]

5. Preparation for publishing in Russian by G.G. Gulichkina, Archival Researcher for the Publishing House of the Meeting of the Lord (Sretenskii) Monastery for men, Moscow, Russia.

Translation from Russian into English by Mark D. Galperin, General Manager of Blagovest Bells, San Anselmo, California [MDG].
Editing of English translation by Robert W. Hegwood, Reader and Bell Ringer of the Holy Resurrection Orthodox Church, Clinton, Mississippi.

The letter from St. Nicholas of Japan to Holy Trinity’s Archimandrite perfectly communicate the energetic and active character of the Holy Hierarch, his aspiration to put all his life for service to God and the Orthodox Church, and also it underlines importance of canonical bell ringing for the Church—MDG.

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