John of Shanghai and San Francisco

Saint John of Shanghai and San Francisco (Russian: Иоанн Шанхайский и Сан Францисский, romanized: Ioann Shankhayskiyi i San Frantsiskyi; born Mikhail Borisovich Maximovitch, Russian: Михаил Борисович Максимович; 4 June 1896 – 2 July 1966) was a prominent ascetic and prelate of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia. He was a pastor and reputed wonderworker with purported powers of prophecy, clairvoyance, and healing. He is often referred to as St. John the Wonderworker.

Saint St. John the Wonderworker
John on his arrival in Shanghai
Bishop of Shanghai, Archbishop of Western Europe, Archbishop of San Francisco
Born	(1896-06-04)4 June 1896 Adamovka, Izyumsky Uyezd, Kharkov Governorate, Russian Empire
Died	2 July 1966(1966-07-02) (aged 70) Seattle, Washington, USA
Venerated in	Eastern Orthodox Church
Canonized	June 19/July 2, 1994, San Francisco, California, U.S. by the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia
Major shrine	Cathedral of the Theotokos, Joy of All Who Sorrow, San Francisco, California, USA
Feast	June 19 (O.S.)/July 2 (N.S.) (nearest Saturday in ROCOR)
Attributes	Glasses

Life

Early life

Mikhail Maximovitch was born in 1896 in the village of Adamovka of the Izyumsky Uyezd of the Kharkov Governorate of the Russian Empire (in present-day eastern Ukraine).

Growing up Mikhail was a sickly child who was deeply devout. He collected icons and church books, and was captivated by the lives of saints; even in play he would pretend toy soldiers were monks and fortresses were monasteries. His piety so impressed his French caretaker that she converted from Catholicism to Orthodox Christianity.

Maximovitch attended Poltava Military School from 1907 to 1914. Later he attended and received a degree in law from Kharkov Imperial University in 1918. He studied and attended church in Kharkiv, where he was inspired by metropolitan Antony Khrapovitsky to go deeper into his spiritual learnings.

He later recalled that the local monastery had become more important in his life than the secular institutions. Maximovitch was a patriot of his fatherland and was profoundly disappointed by what he saw as human weakness and impermanence during the tragic events of the 1917 revolution. As a result, he made the decision to dedicate his life to serving God.

Yugoslavia

His family sought refuge in Yugoslavia and brought him to Belgrade in 1921. In 1925 he graduated from Belgrade University with a degree in theology. To support his impoverished family, he sold newspapers.

In 1926, he was tonsured and ordained a hierodeacon by Russian Metropolitan Anthony (Khrapovitsky), who gave him the name of John after his relative, John of Tobolsk.

Later that same year, he was ordained to the priesthood by Russian Bishop Gabriel (Chepur) of Chelyabinsk. Once ordained, John no longer slept in a bed. He would nap in a chair or kneeling down in front of the icons, praying. He ate only once a day. For several years he worked as an instructor and tutor in Yugoslavia. He worked as a religious teacher in the Gymnasium of Velika Kikinda between 1925 and 1927. In 1929, the Holy Synod of the Serbian Orthodox Church appointed him as a teacher of the seminary in Bitola under principal Nikolaj Velimirović. His reputation grew as he started visiting hospitals, caring for patients with prayer and communion.

Shanghai

In 1934, he was ordained a bishop of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia by Metropolitan Anthony and assigned to the diocese of Shanghai. In Shanghai, bishop John found an uncompleted cathedral and an Orthodox community deeply divided along ethnic lines. Making contact with all the various groups, he quickly became involved in local charitable institutions and also founded an orphanage and home for the children of the destitute.

He set about restoring church unity, and worked to establish ties with local Orthodox Serbs and Greeks. Here he first became known for miracles attributed to his prayer.

As a public figure, it was impossible for him to completely conceal his ascetic way of life. During the Japanese occupation, even when he routinely ignored the curfew in pursuit of his pastoral activities, the Japanese authorities never harassed him.

As the only Russian hierarch in China who refused to submit to the authority of the Soviet-dominated Russian Orthodox Church under Patriarch Alexy I of Moscow, he was elevated in 1946 to archbishop of China by the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia.

When the Communists took power in China in 1949, the Russian colony was forced to flee, first to a refugee camp on the island of Tubabao in the Philippines, and then to the United States and Australia. John traveled to Washington, D.C., to ensure that his people would be allowed to enter the US.

Western Europe

Icon of Our Holy Father John of Shanghai and San Francisco

In 1951, John was assigned to the Archdiocese of Western Europe with his see first in Paris, then in Brussels.

Thanks to his work in compiling the lives of saints, numerous pre-Schism Western saints became known in Orthodoxy and continue to be venerated to this day. His charitable and pastoral work continued as it had in Shanghai, even among a much more widely scattered flock.

San Francisco

In 1962 John was reassigned by the Holy Synod to the see over San Francisco. Here too, he found a divided community and a cathedral in an unfinished state. Although he completed the building of the Holy Virgin Cathedral and brought some measure of peace to the community, he became the target of slander from political enemies. They filed a lawsuit against him for alleged mishandling of finances related to construction of the cathedral. He was exonerated, but this was a great cause of sorrow to him in his later life.

Deeply reverent of John of Kronstadt, John played an active role in the preparation of his canonization in 1964.

The Relics of St. John

Death and veneration

On July 2, 1966 (June 19 on the Julian calendar), John died while visiting Seattle, at a time and place he was said to have foretold. He was entombed in a sepulcher beneath the altar of the Holy Virgin Cathedral he had built in San Francisco. It is dedicated to the Theotokos, Joy of All Who Sorrow, and located on Geary Boulevard in the Richmond district.

In 1994, he was solemnly glorified on the 28th anniversary of his death. His not embalmed, incorrupt relics occupy a shrine in the cathedral's nave. His feast day is celebrated on the Saturday nearest to July 2.

He is beloved and celebrated worldwide with portions of his relics located in Serbia, Russia, Mount Athos, Greece (Church of Saint Anna in Katerini), South Korea, Bulgaria, Romania, United States (St. John the Baptist Cathedral, Washington DC, the parish he founded in 1949, St. John Maximovitch Church, Eugene, Oregon, and St. Innocent Orthodox Church, Redford, Michigan), Canada (Holy Trinity Serbian Orthodox Church, Kitchener), England (Dormition Cathedral of the Russian Orthodox Church, London), and other countries of the world.

Further reading

• Dunlop, John B. (2017). Exodus: St. John Maximovitch Leads His Flock out of Shanghai. Yonkers: St Vladimir's Seminary Press. ISBN 978-0-88141-580-3
• Perekrestov, Archpriest Peter. (1994). Man of God: Saint John of Shanghai & San Francisco. Redding: Nikodemos Orthodox Publication Society. ISBN 1-879066-05-X
• Rose, Fr. Seraphim & Abbot Herman. (1987). Blessed John the wonderworker: A preliminary account of the life and miracles of Archbishop John Maximovitch (Third, revised ed.). Platina: St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood. ISBN 0-938635-01-8.
• Father Seraphim: His Life and Work ISBN 1-887904-07-7.

External links

• Virtual tour of Holy Virgin Cathedral in San Francisco (location of some of his relics)
• Saint John The Wonderworker Church
• Official report on the uncovering of the relics
• Life, Miracles and Sermons of St. John, by Bishop Alexander (Mileant)
• San Francisco Russian Orthodox Cathedral Mother of God "Joy of All Who Sorrow"
• St John of Shanghai parish Belfast, Northern Ireland: https://stjohnofshanghaibelfast.org/