St. John the Russian
St.
John was born in the south of Russia of pious Orthodox parents. He was still
young when, in 1711, he took part in the battle against the Turks. Sharing the
unhappy fate of many other Russian soldiers, the Saint was captured and sold as
a slave to a Turkish cavalry commander from the village of Procopion near
Caesarea in Asia Minor. Fanatic in their Moslem beliefs, the Turks inflicted
cruel tortures upon their Christian slaves in trying to force them to renounce
their faith. While some succumbed to this form of persuasion, many preferred to
suffer death and a whole multitude of martyrs was thus added to the heavenly
choir. In their misguided zeal the Turks would also kidnap the sons of
Christians and raise them as fanatical Moslem soldiers. Procopion was the
army-camp of these Christian-hating Janissaries and the new slave of the Turkish
Agha became a target of their derisions. But neither their insults nor the
beatings of his Turkish master were able to shake the faith of the pious Russian
youth who confessed outright that he would sooner die than lose what he
treasured above all--the holy Orthodox faith.
The
blessed John was assigned to work in the stable where he was also told to sleep.
Recalling the lowly Bethlehem cave and The manger where the Saviour of the world
first lay His head, the Saint rejoiced in his rude dwelling place. In his
humility he regarded his dark corner of the stable as a little paradise where he
could freely offer prayer and praise to the true God. The unshakable firmness of
his faith, his patience, fortitude, and gentleness of spirit, gradually won the
hearts of the Agha and his wife who offered the meek stable boy to sleep in a
small room near the hayloft. John, however, preferred to remain in the stable
where he could toil more assiduously in the ascetic life, bringing his body into
subjection to the spirit according to the Apostle's command. He ate very
sparingly and spent long hours in prayer with the Psalms of David continually on
his lips. Weekly he prepared himself to partake of the Most Holy Mysteries in a
nearby church, for he knew that without the strength of Christ he was powerless
to persevere on the path of the true Faith. At night he would secretly go and
keep vigil in the narthex of the church. The Lord rewarded the labors of His
faithful servant and through him bestowed blessings also upon his Turkish master
who became one of the wealthy and powerful men of Procopion. The Agha understood
the cause of his new prosperity and did not shrink from telling it to his fellow
citizens.
Once
the Agha undertook a pilgrimage to Mecca, the city most sacred to the Moslems.
While he was away, his wife invited friends and relatives to pray for the Agha's
safe return from such an arduous journey. As they were getting ready to eat. the
mistress turned to John, who was serving at the table, and said, "How much
pleasure your master would have, Gavan, if he were here now and ate this pilaff
with us!" The pilaff, a common grain dish of the Middle East, was a
favorite with the Agha. Wishing the best for his master and firmly believing in
the almighty power of God, John asked for a plate full of pilaff from his
mistress, saying that he would send it to his master in Mecca. The guests
laughed but the mistress asked the cook to comply with the youth's request,
thinking that he would take it to some poor Christian family as was his custom.
Those
who are familiar with the Gospel should not be astonished at what happened next,
for did the Lord not say that faith as small as a mustard seed is enough to move
mountains? Strong in his faith, the blessed one returned with the plate of
pilaff to the stable and, as he was petitioning the Lord, in answer to his firm
entreaty, the plate disappeared. What was the amazement of the entire household
when the Agha finally returned from Mecca bringing with him the copper plate
which had held the food. He had been equally astonished to discover the steaming
plate of pilaff upon his return from the Mosque to the locked room where he was
staying. Still greater was his confusion when he realized that the copper plate
was engraved with his initials--just as all the vessels in his house. "For
the sake of Allah, I cannot understand how it came even unto Mecca and who
brought it!" When his wife told him of John's request, they recognized the
strange occurrence to be a miracle of God, and henceforth all considered John as
a righteous man who had found favor with God.
Once
again the Agha and his wife tried to persuade the blessed one to change his
dwelling place, but the Saint preferred to remain among the animals, willingly
fulfilling his duties and continuing steadfast in his ascetic struggles.
·
He persevered in this manner of life until, after a few years, he became ill.
Foreseeing his end, he called for a priest and asked to partake of the Holy
Mysteries. Fearing the fanaticism of the Turks, the priest did not want to bring
the Holy Mysteries openly to the stable, but receiving wisdom from above, he
thought to hollow out an apple; lining the cavity with beeswax, he placed the
Holy Mysteries inside and was thus able to safely bring Communion to the Saint.
Upon receiving the immaculate Body and Blood of the Lord, the blessed one
surrendered his holy soul into the hands of God Whom he loved so much. He
reposed on the 27 of May, 1730, having spent some forty years in this temporal
vale of sin and sorrow.
The Saint was given a Christian burial by order of the Agha who, as a
token of his love and great respect for the Saint, gave an expensive cloth to
cover his relics. Three years later a light appeared over the tomb which was
seen by many. At the same time, the Saint appeared in a dream to his father
confessor revealing that it was the will of God that his relics be exhumed, for
his body was incorrupt. Until 1924 the relics were kept in the church of St.
George there in Procopion. When, however, the exchange of population took place
between Greece and Turkey, and many of the Christian inhabitants of Procopion
were resettled on the island of Euboia, the relics of their beloved St. John
were also moved and were received with great acclaim and veneration by the
Greeks who built a majestic temple in his honor there in the village of New
Procopion. To this day, streams of pious Greek pilgrims make their way to this
village on the island of Euboia, where the Saint answers the faith of their
earnest petitions with his strong and quick intercession before the throne of
God.
SOME MIRACLES OF SAINT JOHN
The Saint performed many wonders even after his blessed
repose. A descendent of the Agha told many of the following miracle: "My
children would not live except for a short time, and would die while yet
infants. Their unfortunate mother, after she had lost hope in the wisdom of
medicine, fled without my knowledge to the relics of the slave John, so that be
might grant her a little child which would not die while yet young, so that we
also might rejoice to see it as a young man or even a young girl .... In truth
the righteous John heard the supplication of my wife. God granted us a strong
little boy whom we called, as you know, Kole Guvan Oglu (that is,
"Son of the Slave John"), and he lives through the power of God and
the prayers of John even until today."
Several times St. John has appeared in dreams and visions
warning of impending dangers. Once he warned some Greek school children that the
roof was about to fall; they had time enough to jump underneath their desks and
when the roof fell, its beams came down upon the desks without striking even one
of the children.
More recently we have heard about the miraculous healings
of two severe cases of meningitis – one a 19 year old shepherd boy in southern
Greece and the other a 3-year old boy in London.
Today a part of the right hand of St. John is enshrined in
a special silver reliquary in the Holy Transfiguration Monastery, Boston, where
many people come to venerate it and to ask the prayers of this simple Confessor
of the Christian faith, knowing that the Lord – Who resisteth the proud –
hears speedily the prayers of the meek.
(Based on a Life by Photios Kontoglou. The Orthodox
Word, June-July, 1967)