FEAST OF THE ANCIENT SAINTS OF CHINA (JAN. 7TH)

By Bp. Joseph Boyd (Ancient Church of the West and the Missionary Diocese of East and Southeast Asia) 

ST. ADAM JINGJING METRAN OF CHINA (JAN. 7TH) 

We remember the first Metropolitan Archbishop to grow up and flourish in China, St. Adam Jingjing, translator and philosopher in the Tang Dynasty. 

Scholars place Adam's probable birth at around AD 750 or 751. Adam's father was named Yīsī (伊斯) who was part of a fighting unit invited to come to China by the Tang court to help quell the An Lu Shan Rebellion. According to the Syriac text on the stele, Adam's grandfather was named Mailas, and was a Syriac priest from Balkh, in northern Afghanistan. Scholars also believe that Adam was raised or born in China and received a Chinese education due to the profound grasp of Classical Chinese and East Asian religious philosophy observed in his writings. Later records indicate that he was elevated to the episcopacy from his monastic vocation later in life. 

Around AD 781, Adam composed the “Nestorian” Stele, although there is no trace of heretical Christology found in the text and is soundly Orthodox. Sources also state that Adam translated multiple Biblical texts into Chinese by imperial order. His works paraphrased portions of the New Testament in a way that the Chinese could understand, and to a smaller extent, he did the same for the Old Testament. In AD 786, Adam helped an Indian monk from Kaposha named Prajna translate the Sutra of the Six Mahayana Paramitas from Sogdian into Chinese. The translated text was presented to Tang Emperor Dezong in AD 787.

圣景净，中国第一大主教（1月7日）

今天，我们纪念第一位在中国成长的大主教亚当景净，唐代杰出的翻译家和哲学家。

学者们将亚当的大概出生时间定在 750 或 751 年左右。景净的父亲被命名为伊斯，他是被唐朝廷邀请来中国帮助平息安禄山叛乱的战斗部队的一份子。 根据大秦景教碑上的叙利亚文记载，景净的祖父名叫迈拉斯，是阿富汗北部巴尔赫的一名叙利亚神父。 据推测，景净在中国长大或出生并接受了中国教育，由于他精通中国古典文学和中国宗教哲学。 在后来的著作记载到，他在晚年的修道时，被提升为大主教。

大约在 781 年，圣景净创作了大秦景教流行中国碑。在此碑文中没有发现异端基督论的痕迹，而完全符合正统观念。 据记载，按照皇室命令据记载景净将多个圣经文本翻译成中文。 他所翻译新约某些部分的释义和一些旧约的部分。 786年，景净帮助来自卡波沙的印度佛教僧侣般若将《六大乘波罗蜜经》从粟特语翻译成中文。 译文于公元 787 年呈献给唐德宗。

ST. ALOPEN ENLIGHTENER OF CHINA (JAN. 7TH) 

St. Alopen is the first recorded Syriac Christian missionary to have reached China during the Tang dynasty. He was a missionary from the Church of the East, and probably a Syriac speaker from the Sasanian Empire or from Byzantine Syria. He is known exclusively from the Xi'an Stele, which describes his arrival in the Tang capital of Chang'an in AD 635 and his acceptance by Emperor Taizong of Tang.

According to the Stele, Taizong welcomed Alopen and arranged for the translation of the holy writings he had brought with him at the Imperial Library. Upon studying them, Taizong, a great scholar and patron, found them most acceptable and arranged for their official dissemination and propagation. Indeed, four documents from the early period of Christianity in China date to around Alopen's time. Three years later, in AD 638, Emperor Taizong issued an official declaration protecting the Church of the East. He erected China's first Christian church and recognized twenty-one priests, likely all Persians, to administer it. Under Taizong's son and successor Gaozong, who continued this policy of toleration, Alopen's status expanded even further, and he was appointed bishop over the many churches built by the emperor. St. Alopen’s time and manner of death are unknown. 

After St. Alopen's time, the Syriac Church was prominent in China for the remainder of the Tang Dynasty's power. Different emperors treated it differently, with some showing it the tolerance it received in the early decades, and some openly persecuting it. The Chinese Church disappeared with the fall of the Tang Dynasty in the early 10th century. It did not return for three centuries, when it was reintroduced by the Mongols. The story of St. Alopen became prominent again in the 17th century, when the Xi'an Stele was rediscovered and the Chinese were surprised to find that the "new" religion being preached by Western missionaries, had actually been in existence in China more than 1,000 years earlier.

COLLECT 

ALMIGHTY GOD, Who didst shine the brilliant light of Thy Holy Gospel upon China through the life and work of St. Alopen, mercifully grant that we Thy servants may ever be illumined by his example and helped by his intercessions, that we also might be faithful scholars, priests and missionaries in the service of Thy Holy Church in East Asia. Through Jesus Christ our Lord, Who livest and reignest with Thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen. 

圣阿罗本中国启蒙者（1月7日）

圣阿罗本是第一位在唐朝到达中国的有所记载的叙利亚基督教传教士，他是东方教会的传教士，可能是来自萨珊帝国或拜占庭叙利亚的讲叙利亚语的人。 仅从《大秦景教流行中国碑》中得知他于公元 635 年抵达唐都长安，并被唐太宗所接纳。

碑上记载，唐太宗迎接了阿罗本，并安排将他带来的圣书翻译。 伟大的学者和赞助人太宗研究它们，发现它们最容易接受，并安排它们正式传播和传播。 事实上，中国基督教早期的四份文献都可以追溯到阿罗本时代。 三年后，公元 638 年，太宗皇帝发布了保护东方教会的官方声明。 他建立了中国第一座基督教教堂，并任命了 21 位可能都是波斯人的神父来管理， 在太宗的儿子和继承人高宗继续这种宽容政策的统治下，阿罗本的地位进一步扩大，他被任命为皇帝建造的许多教堂的主教。 圣阿罗本的死亡时间和方式未知。

在圣阿罗本过世之后，叙利亚教会在当时的权力中占据着重要地位。 不同的皇帝对待它的方式不同，有的表示对它在最初几十年的宽容，有的则公开迫害它。 10世纪初，中国教会随着唐朝的灭亡而消失。300年后，它被蒙古人重新引入。圣阿罗本的故事在 17 世纪再次显赫，当时大秦景教碑被重新发现，中国人惊讶地发现，西方传教士所宣扬的“新”宗教实际上在中国已经存在超过一千年前。

搜集祷

全能的上帝，通过圣阿罗本的生活和工作，将你神圣福音的光辉照耀在中国，慈悲地赐予祢的仆人可能永远被他的榜样所照亮，并得到他代祷的帮助，我们也可能是忠诚的学者、神父和传教士在东亚为你的圣教会服务。 借着我们的主耶稣基督，祂在圣灵的合一中与祢同生并作王，永远独一之神，世世无尽。 阿门。