St John the Russian

 St John the Russian of Capadoccia

Saint John the Russian was born around 1690-1693, during the reign of Peter the Great (r. 1682–1725). When John was a brave young boy he served as a soldier in the war against the Ottoman Empire in the years 1711-1718. 

During his military service, he frequently used the religious teachings that he received from his family as being a strict Orthodox Christian. As the war continued intensively near the Castle of Azov, the Ottoman army captured him as a prisoner. He was sent, just like the other prisoners to Istanbul. 


At that time, Omer Esat (Eset) who served as Janissary Agha in the Ottoman army took with him as his slave to his hometown, Prokopion (now Ürgüp) near Caesarea of Cappadocia.


Turkey was filled with a multitude of Muscovite slaves who groaned under the harsh Muslim yoke. Sadly, the majority of these loathsome wretches, to lighten their burden, denied the Faith of Christ and embraced Islam.
Possessing that knowledge which God imparts to those who love him, blessed John was patient in the ill-treatment of his master and the insults and annoyances of the Muslims who called him Kafir, which means unbeliever.

Prokopion was the site of an army camp of the Christian-hating Jannisaries, who were sons of Christians taken from their parents while young and raised as fanatical Muslim soldiers. John was a particular object of hatred to the Jannisaries because to his master and to all who urged him to deny his Faith he answered with conviction that he preferred to die rather than fall into such a fearful sin. 


To Omer Esat Agha he said, "If you leave me free in my religion, I will be very eager to carry out your commands. But if you try to force me to change my faith, I will first surrender my head. I was born a Christian and a Christian I shall die."

Seeing John's faith and hearing his confession, God at length softened the Turk's hard heart so that at last Omer Esat Agha relented. From then on John was left in peace without further threats from his Muslim lord who kept him in a stable to care for animals. 


In one comer of the stable, John would lie his tired body down to rest. John thanked God for being deemed worthy to have as a bed a manger like the one in which our Lord Jesus Christ had likewise lain at his birth. 

Dedicated to his work, John affectionately cared for the animals; and they, perceiving the love that the saint had for them, would look for him expectantly whenever he was absent. When he petted them, they looked at him with love and whinnied with joy as though they were talking with him. It was observed that everything was in abundance at Omer Esat Agha's Mansion; the number of healthy animals constantly increased and prospered after the arrival of Saint John the Russian. 

His obedience, his respect for people and getting along well with everyone made Omer Esat Agha very happy. Although Agha wished to give him a proper house - instead of the stable room allocated to him, he preferred to not give up his modest life and chose to live in the same stable with the animals.


John continued to sleep in his beloved stable to bring his body into subjection by privation and asceticism amid the reek of the animals and the stamping of their feet. Blessed John made that stable a hermitage, living there according to the rule of the Fathers, kneeling and praying for hours at times, taking a little rest by curling up on the hay with no covering except for an old coat. At night, however, that stable was filled with the prayers of the saint, and the smell would become an odour of a spiritual fragrance.  

Often, he took only a little bread and water, fasting on most days and quietly chanting psalms in Slavonic. "He that dwelleth in the help of the Most High shall abide in the shelter of the God of heaven. He shall say to the Lord: Thou art my helper and my refuge. He is my God, and I will hope in him. For he shall deliver thee from the snare of the hunters and from every troubling word (Ps. 90:1-3)." "They laid me in the lowest pit, in darkness and in the shadow of death (Ps. 87:6)." "Unto the Lord in mine affliction have I cried, and he heard me (Ps. 119:1)." "The Lord shall keep thy coming in and going out, from henceforth and forevermore (Ps. 120:8)." "Unto thee have I lifted up my eyes, unto thee that dwellest in heaven. Behold, as the eyes of servants look unto the hands of their masters, so our eyes look unto the Lord our God until he take pity on us (Ps. 122:1,2)."


Feeling love and compassion for humans, animals and all living creatures in nature during his relatively short life, the Saint was well known to always walk with arms crossed on his chest and to keep saying the word "Holy God". He mostly spent his life between Omer Esat Agha's house and the Hagia Yorgi (St. Georgios) Church close to his house. He greeted all the people he saw with the name of God and wished mercy and love to be with them.

Spending the next 12 years of his life at Omer Esat Agha's Mansion, this local Saint was a personality loved by both the Muslims and Christians of the neighbourhood. He lived in the Kayakapı Neighbourhood until his death (27th of May 1730).

St. John the Russian was a Saint of miracles. Omer Esat Agha himself had personally witnessed the first miracle as follows:

After Omer Esat Agha had become wealthy, he determined to go on the annual pilgrimage to Mecca to give thanks to God for his blessings, which he actually received through the intercessions of Saint John

After leaving Prokopion, and enduring the hardships suffered in those times by pilgrims, Omer Esat Agha arrived at the holy city of the Muslims. While performing the task of Hajj he longed for mantı (a ravioli like Turkish dish) for dinner. He told his friends: "I wish we had sweet mantı with yogurt and garlic for dinner tonight". 


Saint John in Prokopion "happened" to become aware of this wish. He asked Omer Esat Agha’s wife to prepare a large pot of mantı and as a reason for this preparation he told Agha’s wife that Omer Esat Agha longs for mantı. The lady of the house cooked the dish upon the Saint’s insistent request. The Saint took the dish and disappeared. 


Taking the dish, the saint went to the stable where he knelt and prayed from the depths of his heart that almighty God would send the food to his master in whatever manner he might choose. In his simplicity the blessed one had faith that the Lord would hearken to his prayer and that the food would arrive in Mecca by supernatural means. He believed "without doubting," according to the word of the Lord that God would perform this miracle. 

As the great ascetic Saint Isaac the Syrian writes, "These supernatural things will occur for those who are simple in mind and fervent in the hope." Indeed the plate of food vanished from before John's eyes. Then the holy one returned to the dining room and told his mistress that he had sent the manti to his master.


When Omer Esat Agha and his friends returned back to their lodging after completing their religious exercises for the day, they found a big plate of fresh mantı on the table. Nobody knew who had cooked it or where it came from.


Some months later Omer Esat Agha returned to Prokopion from Mecca, and to the amazement of his household brought with him the very copper plate that had held the food. Only blessed John was not surprised. The Aga told his household, "On that exact day (that is, on the day of his wife's prepared the manti in Prokopion) as I was returning from the Great Mosque to the house where I stayed, I found this plate filled with manti on the table in a room that I had locked. I stood pondering who could have brought it. Above all, I could not understand how the door which I had locked well had been opened. Not knowing how to explain this mystery, I examined the plate of steaming pilaf. I saw with amazement that my name was engraved in the copper just as all such vessels in our house. Despite confusion from that unexplainable circumstance, I sat down and ate the manti with great relish. Observe the plate which I have brought back. It is truly ours. For the sake of Allah, I do not understand how it came all the way to Mecca, or who brought it."

Learning about the event with amazement, Omer Esat Agha understood that this youngster was different. This miracle was soon made known to the whole village and surrounding area, and from now on John was considered righteous and beloved of God. No one any longer dared to bother the holy one but rather looked upon him with fear and reverence. 

His master and his master's wife esteemed him all the more and entreated him again to leave the stable and occupy a more comfortable dwelling. Even so, John refused to change his residence and continued to live as an ascetic, labouring as before to care for the animals and eagerly obeying the commands of his master. 

Saint John spent his nights in prayer and psalmody, according to the word of the Lord who says, "Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's, and unto God the things which are God's."

John approached the end of his life after several years of fasting, prayer, and sleeping on the ground. Falling ill, he lay on the straw in the stable that he had sanctified with his supplications and privations for the love of Christ who became man for us and was crucified for our sake. 

Foreseeing his end, John called for a priest and asked to partake of the immaculate Mysteries. Because of the fanaticism of the Turks, the priest was afraid to openly bring the Holy Mysteries into the stable. He was made wise with divine enlightenment however, and, taking an apple, he dug the core out, lined the cavity with beeswax, and placed the divine Communion inside. Thus he went to the stable and gave Communion to blessed John. After receiving the immaculate Body and Blood of the Lord, John surrendered his holy soul into the hands of God whom he loved so much. 

The Saint was given a Christian burial on the 27th of May 1730 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 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 Euboea, 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 honour there in the village of New Procopion (New Ürgüp). To this day, streams of pious Greek pilgrims make their way to this village on the island of Euboia.

There are hundreds of miracles relating to the Saint, two of the miracles told about St. John the Russian are:

1 - Greek sailors caught in a storm in the Arctic Ocean on the way to the Netherlands were constantly praying in front of the icon of Saint John the Russian. The ship's captain said: "My Saint, I beg for this ship and crew which are very valuable to me. Please save us from the wild waves!".
They struggled with cold waves and terrible storms all night. In the morning, as day broke, the ship was at a secure point of the docks in Rotterdam. Nobody knew how the ship arrived and anchored there. The ship's captain left the Netherlands after this miracle and came to Greece. Together with his wife, he went to Prokopi in Greece with valuable presents where Saint John the Russian rests today. Today the presents are still kept in the church that holds the name of the Saint.

2 – An old woman named Maria Siaka living in Frenaro, a village near the city of Famagusta of Cyprus lived with a hunchback almost causing her face to touch the ground for eighteen years. Maria came to the church in Prokopi, where the corpse of the Saint rests today. The woman prayed to the Saint for nights and days to save her from the hunchback. One day, while praying in the church, the woman slowly stood upright with a cracking sound of the spine, just as if a hand was pulling her on her back. The woman turned to her old normal condition. After this miracle, the old woman said: "My dear St. John, I am a poor old woman and have nothing else to give you but my walking stick." She hung her stick on the corpse of the Saint and left the church. Today, that walking stick is still hanging where Maria Siaka left it.

Saint John the Russian’s right hand is in the Russian Monastery of St. Panteleimon in Athos. With the blessing of Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow in 2003-2004 a small wooden church of St. John the Russian was erected in Moscow, in the Kuntsevo district. In Novosibirsk, Russia the lower side chapel of the church of Our Lady of the Sign is also devoted to St. John the Russian.

References

1. Life of St. John the Russian. (n.d.). Orthodox Church of St. John the Russian. Retrieved December 6, 2024, from https://www.stjohntherussian.com/patronsaint
2. St. John the Russian: the Saint of Kayakapi. (n.d.). Kayapaki Premium Caves, Capadoccia. Retrieved December 6, 2024, from https://www.kayakapi.com/st-john-the-russian