About the translator: James Lawton Haney received his Ph.D. in Church History from Yale University. In 1965 he joined the faculty of the Department of Religion at Concordia College, Moorhead, MN. Until his retirement in 1996 he taught courses in the area of Eastern Orthodox Studies. He rejoined the Concordia faculty as Visiting Professor in 1999.
2001 0-7734-7362-9 A translation of K. V. Kharlampovich’s biography of a monastic missionary among the tribal people of western Siberia who was canonized as a saint by the Russian Orthodox Church in the year 2000. The translator’s interpretive essay makes clear that he merits a place in the history of Christian missions. It is an arresting portrait of an Orthodox hesychast driven to found a mission among the Altaian people. He also enunciated the first comprehensive plan for missionary activity in the Russian Church and translated the Hebrew scriptures into modern Russian. This work adds a significant piece to the mosaic of orthodox spirituality in its delineation of the struggle of far-sighted, highly creative monk against the forces of an entrenched bureaucracy.. Published in 1905 in Kazan’, Kharlampovich’s biography has not been previously translated. In addition to its significance for the study of Russian missions and Orthodox spirituality, it also makes a valuable contribution to the broader study of pre-Revolutionary Russian culture, Slavic history, and social and religious history of 19th-century Europe. With maps, facsimiles, and photographs.