Saint John Maximovich: The Merciful and Confessing Bishoptranslated

Lambros Skontzos, Theologian, writes

Russian Orthodoxy has to present a great cloud of saints, which adorns the hagiological firmament of our Church. We have a particular prominence of saints in recent years, when the Russian Church had entered its well-known historical adventures. One of the contemporary prominent Russian saints is Saint John Maximovich, Bishop of Shanghai and San Francisco, of the Orthodox Russian Diaspora.

He was born on June 4, 1896 in the village of Adamovka, Kharkov province in South Russia. His baptismal name was Michael. His parents were named Boris and Glafira and they were descendants of the famous aristocratic and pious Maksimovich family. In fact, one member of the family, Ioannis Maksimovich, was a famous Hierarch, Bishop of Tobolsk, who became a saint (he celebrates on June 10) and his honest relic remains incorruptible in the city of Tobolsk.

His pious parents raised him with faith in God and devotion to Orthodoxy. But even from a young age he showed an unusual love for God and a strong desire to live the church life. Although patient, she ate little and kept all her fasts...