“We are Completing our Appointed Time in Beijing without Tedium”. A Few Letters from the Literary Heritage of Archimandrite Palladius (Kafarov)

Archimandrite Palladius (Kafarov; 1817–1878) – the famous Oriental scholar, diplomat, traveler, missionary, and participant of the 12th and the head of the 13th and 15th Russian Ecclesiastical Missions in Beijing – carried on extensive correspondence with numerous statesmen and diplomats of his time. Currently, 170 letters from Father Palladius have been published. Most likely, this is only a small part of the extensive epistolary heritage of this outstanding church figure of the 19th century. This publication presents five letters from Archimandrite Palladius: 1) to Vice-Director of the Asian Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs N. I. Lyubimov (1847); 2) to Director of the Asian Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Ye. P. Kovalevsky (1852); 3) to Archimandrite Abbacum (Chestnoy) (1856); 4) to Baron F. R. Osten-Sacken (1860); 5) to diplomat A. Ye. Vlangali (1867). These letters were first published in 1979 by A. N. Khokhlov. In this publication, the letters are provided with more detailed comments that allow for a fresh look at certain aspects of the multifaceted activities of the head of the Ecclesiastical Mission in Beijing. The appendix contains a list of publications of the letters of Archimandrite Palladius in Russian, English and Chinese.