On June 4, 1896, in the village of Adamovka in Kharkov Governorate, a son was born to Boris and Glafira Maksimovich. At baptism, the infant was named Mikhail in honor of St. Michael the Archangel. From childhood, Mikhail demonstrated fervent faith and expressed a desire to dedicate himself to serving God, but at his parents' insistence, he was forced to study at the Poltava Cadet Corps and then, in 1918, to continue his studies at the Faculty of Law of Kharkov University. In 1921, Mikhail and his family emigrated to Yugoslavia. There, in 1925, he graduated from the Faculty of Theology at the University of Belgrade. In 1926, at the Serbian Milkovo Monastery, Metropolitan Anthony tonsured Mikhail as a monk, giving him the name John in honor of his ancestor, St. John (Maximovich), Metropolitan of Tobolsk. That same year, he was ordained a hieromonk by Bishop Gabriel of Chelyabinsk. From 1925 to 1934, Hieromonk John taught at the Serbian Seminary in Bitola.
According to eyewitnesses, from the day of his monastic tonsure, Blessed John never slept lying down, spending every night in prayer, dozing only for a few hours while sitting in a chair. It is known that throughout his life, the blessed one celebrated the Liturgy daily, fasted strictly, and ate only once a day, at 11 p.m. In the morning, he would douse himself with cold water or take a cold bath. During Great Lent, during the first and last weeks, the ascetic ate nothing but the Holy Gifts, and on the remaining days of Lent, only altar bread.
In 1934, the young bishop arrived in Shanghai from Serbia for the feast of the Entry of the Most Holy Theotokos into the Temple. A large crowd gathered at the dock to greet their new archpastor. The construction of a large cathedral and the resolution of a jurisdictional conflict that had arisen there awaited him. Saint John soon calmed the tension, completing the enormous cathedral in honor of the icon of the Mother of God "Surety of Sinners," as well as a three-story parish house with a bell tower.
He paid special attention to the spiritual education of children, personally taught the Law of God in the senior classes of the Commercial School, and always attended examinations on the Law of God in all Orthodox schools in Shanghai. He inspired and founded the construction of churches, a hospital, a mental hospital, an orphanage, nursing homes, a public soup kitchen—in short, all the social undertakings of Russian Shanghai. The saint lived the life of his flock. He was directly involved in the life of the emigration institutions.
However, despite his active and vibrant involvement in so many secular affairs, he remained aloof from the world. From his very first day in Shanghai, the saint, as before, celebrated the Divine Liturgy daily. Wherever he was, he never missed a service. From constant standing, the saint's leg became severely swollen, and a council of doctors, fearing gangrene, ordered immediate hospitalization. The saint refused. After much entreaty, even threatening to take him away by force, the parish council members forced the saint to agree, and he was sent to the hospital. By evening, however, he was no longer in the hospital, and at 6:00 a.m., he served the all-night vigil in the cathedral, as usual.
He performed all the daily services without missing a single one, so much so that at Compline, five or more canons were sometimes read, in order to honor all the saints. The saint did not allow unnecessary conversation in the altar and personally ensured that the altar servers behaved as expected, compiling rules of conduct for them, which he strictly but kindly enforced. After Liturgy, Saint John would remain in the altar for two or three hours and once remarked, "How difficult it is to tear oneself away from prayer and return to earthly matters." He remained vigilant at night. He never visited others, but he would unexpectedly appear at the homes of those in need, in any weather and at the most unusual hours. He visited the sick daily with the Holy Gifts. He could often be seen in inclement weather, late at night, walking the streets of Shanghai, his staff in hand and his cassock fluttering in the wind. When asked where he was headed in such weather, the saint would reply, "It's not far from here; I need to visit so-and-so."
"While concerned with the salvation of human souls," the saint said, "we must remember that people also have bodily needs that loudly proclaim themselves. One cannot preach the Gospel without demonstrating love in deeds." One manifestation of this love was the founding of an orphanage in honor of Saint Tikhon of Zadonsk for orphans and children of needy parents. He founded the orphanage, which over its fifteen-year existence in Shanghai became a refuge for many hundreds of children. The bishop himself collected sick and starving children from the streets and dark alleys of Shanghai. Once, he brought a girl to the orphanage, "buying" her from a Chinese man in exchange for a bottle of vodka.
The parishioners of the Shanghai Diocese held their archpastor in profound love and respect, as evident from the following excerpt from a letter written by one of them to Metropolitan Meletios in 1943: "We, secular people, laypeople, do not touch upon his (Saint John's) theological erudition, his erudition, his teachings, deeply imbued with the apostolic faith, which he delivered almost daily and often published. We, the Shanghai flock, will speak of what we see and feel in our multi-ethnic city since the day of our saint's arrival, what we see with our sinful eyes and what we feel with our Christian hearts."
From the day of his arrival, the sad phenomenon of the division of the churches ceased; the shelter of St. Tikhon of Zadonsk was created out of nothing, now feeding, clothing and educating 200 children; the situation of the House of Mercy named after St. Philaret the Merciful gradually improved; the sick in all Shanghai hospitals are visited by priests, receive communion on time, and in case of death, even the homeless are given a funeral service; the insane in a hospital far outside the city are visited by him personally; prisoners in the prisons of the Settlement and the French Concession have the opportunity to pray in their places of detention during the Divine Liturgy and receive communion monthly; serious attention is paid to the upbringing and education of youth in a strictly Orthodox national spirit; in many foreign schools our children learn the Law of God; in all difficult moments of public life we see him walking ahead and defending us and the original Russian foundations to the last opportunity, or calling for sacrifice; "All sectarian organizations and heterodox denominations have understood and understand that the struggle against such a pillar of the Orthodox faith is extremely difficult. Our saint tirelessly visits churches, hospitals, schools, prisons, secular and military institutions, always bringing encouragement and faith with his visit. Since the day of his arrival, not a single sick person has been refused his prayers or a personal visit, and through the saint's prayers, many have received relief and recovery. He, like a torch, illuminates our sinfulness, like a bell awakens our conscience, calls our souls to the Christian struggle, calls us like a good shepherd, so that we, if only for a moment, turn away from the earth and the filth of life and lift our eyes to heaven, from whence alone comes help. He is the one who, in the words of the holy Apostle Paul, is an example of the faithful in word and conduct, in love and spirit, in faith and purity (1 Tim. 4:12)."
The miraculous power of prayer and the clairvoyance of Saint John were renowned in Shanghai. It happened that Saint John was urgently summoned to administer Holy Communion to a dying man in the hospital. Taking the Holy Gifts, the saint went with another clergyman to the hospital. Upon arrival, they saw a young and cheerful man in his twenties playing the accordion. He had already recovered and was soon to leave the hospital. The saint called him over and said, "I want to give you Holy Communion now." The young man immediately approached him, confessed, and received Holy Communion. The astonished clergyman asked Saint John why he hadn't gone to the dying man, but lingered with the apparently healthy young man. The saint replied very briefly: "He will die tonight, but the seriously ill one will live for many years." And so it happened. The Lord performed similar miracles through His saint in both Europe and America.
In 1945, a new Patriarch of Moscow, Alexy I (Simansky), was elected. Some hierarchs of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia recognized this election and transferred to the jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarchate. Bishop John remained under the jurisdiction of the Synod Abroad. In 1946, Bishop John was elevated to the rank of archbishop. The Chinese Kuomintang government and city authorities recognized him as the head of the Russian Orthodox Church in China.
In the late 1940s, with the rise of the Communists to power, many Russians in China were forced to flee, most of them via the Philippines. In 1949, Father John and his flock, approximately 5,000 refugees from China, were in a camp on the Philippine island of Tubabao. Remarkably, during their 27 months on the island, located in the path of seasonal typhoons, the refugees, through the prayers of Bishop John, never encountered a single typhoon.
Locals said typhoons avoided the island because a Russian "holy man (Blessed John) blessed the camp every night from all four sides." After the bishop personally persuaded the American Congress to change the immigration law and resettle the entire flock to the United States, and all refugees were evacuated, a devastating typhoon struck the camp.
Since 1951, by decision of the Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad, Archbishop John has headed the Western European Diocese. While the bishop had previously celebrated the Divine Liturgy in Greek and Chinese, he now celebrated the Liturgy in his diocese in French, Dutch, and English. People wrote about him from Paris: "He already lives outside our plane. It's not for nothing that they say that in one of the Parisian Catholic churches, a priest addressed the youth: 'You demand proof, you say there are no miracles or saints today. What good is theoretical proof when a living saint—Saint Jean Pieds (Saint John the Barefoot)—is now walking the streets of Paris.'"
Thanks to his knowledge of languages and, above all, his personal example of piety, Saint John attracted many French, Dutch, and other Europeans to Orthodoxy. Archbishop John collected the lives and icons of Western European saints, submitted a detailed list of locally venerated saints whose names were not included in the Orthodox calendar to the Synod, and raised the need for the veneration of Western saints by all Orthodox Christians worldwide. His stay in Europe had such missionary significance.
Even during his lifetime, many believers considered the elder a saint; through his prayers, numerous miracles of healing were performed, and the most complex life-changing problems of those who believed in the power of his prayers were solved in incredible ways.
From the memoirs of Blessed John's spiritual children: "Father John was a rare man of prayer. He was so immersed in the texts of his prayers that it seemed as if he were conversing with God, the Most Holy Theotokos, and the angels..."
“In 1939, my faith began to waver. I decided to stop going to church and go visit friends. My path led past the cathedral, and then I heard singing in the church. I entered the church. Bishop John was serving. The altar was open. Bishop John said the prayer: ‘Come, eat, this is My Blood... for the remission of sins,’ after which he knelt and made a deep bow. I saw the Chalice with the Holy Gifts uncovered, and at that moment, after the Bishop’s words, a flame descended from above into the Chalice. The shape of the flame resembled a tulip flower, but larger. Never in my life did I think that I would actually see the consecration of the Gifts by fire. My faith was rekindled. The Lord showed me the faith of the Bishop, and I felt ashamed of my cowardice” (Mother Augusta).
"I saw how his face was sometimes literally transformed during the Liturgy, especially during Lent, shining with an unearthly light, and his eyes, always full of divine love, radiated an inexpressible joy, inaccessible to sinners—and this was a sign of the presence of the Holy Spirit. But what was most astonishing was his gift of seeing the human heart and drawing it to Christ. Ultimately, if it weren't for this righteous man, I would never have imagined the possibility of my serving as a pastor in the Church" (Father Georgy Larin).
"In San Francisco, my husband was very ill after a car accident. He lost his balance and suffered terribly. Knowing the power of the bishop's prayers, I thought about inviting the bishop to my husband, but I was afraid to do so at the time because of his busy schedule. Two days passed, and suddenly the bishop came to us, accompanied by B.M. Troyan, who had brought him. The bishop was with us for five minutes... This was the most difficult moment of his illness; after the bishop's visit, my husband began to recover. Later, I met B.M. Troyan, and he told me that he was driving the car while driving the bishop to the airport. Suddenly, the bishop said to him:
“We’re going to Liu’s now.” He objected that they would be late.
Then the lord said:
"Can you take on a man's life? There was nothing else to do, so he brought the Lord to us."
(L. A. Liu).
"One day in Shanghai, Bishop John was called to the bedside of a dying child whose condition, according to doctors, was hopeless. Entering the house, Bishop John went straight to the room where the sick boy lay, although no one had yet shown him where to go. Without even examining the child, the bishop fell before an icon in the corner of the room and prayed for a long time. Then, assuring the relatives that the child would recover, he quickly left. And indeed, by morning the child improved, and soon recovered—without medical assistance" (Dr. A. F. Baranov-Erie, Pennsylvania). 291
"I was the head of a church district in the Philippines, and I sometimes accompanied Vladyka to the hospital in Guangdong, where seriously ill Russians were being treated. Vladyka visited them, giving them pocket Gospels and small icons. One day, as we entered the Russian hospital ward, we heard terrible screams coming from afar. When Vladyka inquired, a sister said it was a terminally ill woman who had been placed in a former American military hospital adjacent to the building. Vladyka immediately decided to go to the sick woman. I followed him... Approaching the sick woman, Vladyka placed a cross on her head and began to pray. Vladyka prayed for a long time, then heard her confession and gave her Holy Communion. When we left, she no longer screamed, only moaned softly. Some time later, we arrived at the hospital again and had barely managed to enter the courtyard in our jeep when a woman ran out of the hospital and threw herself at the bishop's feet. This was the "hopeless" patient for whom he had prayed" (G. Larin).
Archbishop John said: “The highest prayer is that when a person forgets all his goals, even the highest, burning with one desire – to come as close as possible to the Lord, to lay his head at His feet, to give his whole heart. This is perfect love and perfect prayer . When one wants only to breathe the Lord, to live only by Him, to love Him, to take refuge in His closeness, in His ineffable love.”
By the grace of God, the blessed elder was granted this perfect love, perfect prayer and boundless faith.
On July 2, 1966, after Liturgy in Seattle, Blessed John reposed before the Kursk Root Icon of the Mother of God "of the Sign." On June 24, according to the Old Calendar, the solemn funeral service for St. John was held at the Cathedral of the Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos "Joy of All Who Sorrow" in San Francisco. The funeral service began at 6:00 PM and ended just after 1:00 AM, due to the large crowd of people bidding farewell to the departed archpastor.
The saint's body lay in its open coffin for six days, and despite the hot summer weather, not the slightest odor of decay could be detected, and his hand was soft, not numb. This was despite the fact that nothing had been done to his body at the funeral home. The words of Bishop Ignatius (Brianchaninov) in his "Reflections on Death" involuntarily came to mind: "Has anyone ever seen the body of a righteous man, abandoned by his soul? There is no stench, approaching it is not terrifying: at burial, his sorrow is dissolved by some incomprehensible joy." All this, according to the same Saint Ignatius, is a sure sign that "the deceased has found mercy and grace from the Lord."
After his blessed repose, Saint John, as he had in life, granted various healings and miracles to those who turned to him with faith. In difficult times, when no earthly powers could help, people turned to his intercession before the Lord. Letters sent, as well as notes with names, were placed under the mitre on the saint's tomb, and many received the help they had hoped for.
In June 1994, the Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia canonized Saint John.
In the fall of 1993, the Archbishop of Western America and San Francisco, along with a commission consisting of two other archpastors, was commissioned by the Synod of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia to examine the remains of Saint John. On the evening of September 28th (Old Style), after a memorial service celebrated by the commission members at the tomb of Archbishop John, the lid of the sarcophagus was removed. Those present removed the metal coffin of the saint and noticed that it was completely rusted in many places. With the fear of God and prayer, they opened the coffin. The saint's face was covered, and everyone immediately noticed his bright, incorruptible hands. After praying, they uncovered the saint's face, and everyone beheld the incorruptible face of the God-glorified saint.
His full life is available here as PDF: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1F7knGWbp6nO1V13SAVVNmCvGUUoV18Gc/view?usp=drive_link