Samuel Isaac Joseph Schereschewsky

Samuel Isaac Joseph Schereschewsky ( born May 6, 1831 in Tauragė ( in the Lithuanian part of the Tsarist empire ); † October 15, 1906 ) ( known in Chinese as施 约瑟) was Anglican Bishop of Shanghai from 1877 to 1884. In 1879 he founded St. John 's University, Shanghai.

Early years

Schereschewsky apparently was named after his father. His mother was Rosa Salvatha. As a young boy orphaned, it is speculated that a half-brother of his, who was a wealthy timber merchant who has brought him up. Since he proved to be a good student, he received the best possible education, and his family intended that he should become a rabbi. After he left the household of his brother at age 15, he earned his living as a private teacher and Glaser. In the rabbinical school at Zhytomyr, he received a New Testament in Hebrew, that came from the London Society for Promoting Christianity amongst the Jews. His reading of this book convinced him gradually that the messianic prophecies of the Old Testament and thus the long-awaited aspirations of his people have been fulfilled in Jesus of Nazareth. At age 19, he went to Germany, where he studied at the University of Frankfurt am Main a year or more, and after two years at the University of Breslau. In addition to his mastery of the liquid Yiddish, Polish and Russian language he acquired the German language, which he spoke to mother tongue level until the end of his days.

Way to China

In the summer of 1854 he decided to emigrate to the United States. In New York City he met Messianic Jews, but even he only came in the spring of 1855 to Christianity when he was by complete immersion in the baptismal water member of a Baptist church. For unknown reasons, he was a Presbyterian, and then attended the Western Theological Seminary of the Presbyterian Church in Allegheny (Pennsylvania). After a little more than two years, he left the Presbyterian Church to join the Episcopal Church of the United States and attended General Theological Seminary. His plan to complete the remaining two years of his studies there were interrupted when he offered himself to do missionary work in China. On 3 May 1859, the Foreign Committee decided that he should be appointed to China immediately after his ordination as a missionary. His ordination took place on 17 July 1859 in St. George 's Church, New York by Bishop William Jones Boone instead. He arrived at Woosung on 21 December 1859 with the ship Golden Rule. On October 28, 1860, he was (later called the Church of our Savior, Hongkew known ) consecrated in the chapel of the mission school of Bishop Boone priest. Until 1861 Schereschewsky had begun with his translation work, the first of which the Book of Psalms was concerned, which he translated into the Shanghai dialect. Together with the English missionary John Shaw Burdon Schereschewsky translated the Book of Common Prayer into Chinese. He served as Bishop of Shanghai until he was so poor that he could no longer continue. He used a wheelchair at the end of his life.

Samuel Isaac Joseph Schereschewsky is buried in Tokyo.

St. John 's University, founded the Schereschewsky with 39 students, taught mainly in Chinese, until 1891 introduced the English language, as the courses more concerned with science and natural philosophy.

Worship

Schereschewsky is commemorated with a feast day in the calendar of the Episcopal Church of the United States on October 14.