Church commemorates St. John of Shanghai

Saint John of Shanghai. Photo: Pravoslavie

On July 2, the Orthodox Church commemorates St. John of Shanghai and San Francisco, one of the most revered Orthodox ascetics of the 20th century.

St. John, born Michael Maximovitch, was born in 1896 in the village of Adamovka, Kharkiv Governorate. After emigrating, he studied at the Faculty of Theology of the University of Belgrade, was tonsured a monk with the name John, and was ordained a bishop. His archpastoral ministry took him to Shanghai, Western Europe, and San Francisco.

Even during his lifetime, St. John became known as a strict ascetic, a man of prayer, a missionary, and a defender of those in need. In Shanghai, with his blessing, orphanages, hospitals, homes for the elderly, and institutions to assist refugees were established. Vladyka showed particular care for orphans and poor children.

Contemporaries recalled that St. John served divine services daily, visited the sick and prisoners, and spiritually supported Orthodox emigrants. Serbian St. Nikolai Velimirovich told his disciples about him: “Children, listen to Father John; he is an angel of God in human form.”

St. John reposed on July 2, 1966, in Seattle while praying before the Kursk Root Icon of the Mother of God. After his repose, cases of healing and help to believers began occurring at his tomb, and in 1993, when the tomb was opened in San Francisco, his incorrupt body was uncovered.

One of the witnesses to the uncovering of the relics, Archpriest Peter Perekrestov, recalled that after the coffin was opened, the clergy saw the saint’s preserved body.

“I went upstairs to the apartment and cried out: ‘Incorrupt! Incorrupt!’” the priest recounted.

On July 2, 1994, St. John was glorified by the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia. In 2008, the Bishops’ Council of the Russian Orthodox Church glorified him for church-wide veneration. The saint’s relics are kept in the Cathedral of the Mother of God “Joy of All Who Sorrow” in San Francisco.

Earlier, the UOJ reported that the Orthodox Church honors the memory of St. Onuphrius the Great.

Read also