The All Japan Council of July 1882 was presided by the bishop St Nikolai of Japan. A delegation from Beijing, who arrived on June 17/29, was also present. The delegation included the priest St Mitrophan (Metrophanes) and Archimandrite Flavian, and two fellow Chinese Orthodox readers—St Pavel (Paul) and his brother-in-law Evmeny (Eumenius).
In the record of this council, there is no description about St. Mitrophan, except for in the name list of participants, where only the names of him and Archimandrite Flavian appeared.
Prior to the Council, St Nikolai of Japan ordained St Mitrophan of Beijing on the feast of Sts Peter and Paul (June 29/July 11, 1882) at the Tokyo Cross Church (Cross church is a term that means a church in the bishop's living quarters). The cross church was dedicated to the Nativity and located on the second floor of the bishop's residence. The Sunday prior (June 20/July 2) St Mitrophan was ordained to the diaconate while Pavel and Evmeny were blessed as readers.
Archimandrite Anatoly and Hieromonk Vladimir (who later became a bishop in Russia) worked in Japan at that time and participated in the Council. The participants of the Council and the Chinese delegation had a social gathering on July 7/19. On the next day they gave the participants the Russian Bible as a present. On July 9/21, two representatives of the Japanese Orthodox Church gave them poems of farewell, as they boarded the boat at Yokohama Port to return home.
The first poem was written by the catechist Spiridon Oshima (大嶋), the others were written by Pavel Nakai (中井), who is next to Eumenius in the official group photo of the Council attendees. Pavel Nakai was the writer of Seikyo Shinpo, and also assisted St. Nikolai to translate various kinds of books in church. He was a scholar of the Chinese classics and recently some people in Russia began to study about him.
Sts Mitrophan and Pavel along with Evmeny Li's brother St Pyotr (Peter) were later martyred on June 10/23, 1900, at the beginning of the Yihetuan Uprising.
Special thanks goes to his Grace Bishop Seraphim (Tsujinaga Noboru 辻永昇) of Sendai for providing this material and photos.
