The life and words of Saint John of Shanghai

Saint John (Maximovich; 1896 – 1966), an amazing saint – prayer leader, seer, blessed wonder worker, preacher, theologian. Saint John was one of the 20th century apostles who preserved the Russian Church in the Dispersion. Saint Nicholas of Serbia said of him: "He is an angel of God in human form." From the Life of Saint John of Shanghai Father Juan served the Divine Liturgy and received Holy Communion every day. Since the day of his monastic tonsure he never went to bed, he slept sitting up and prayed all night. Sometimes he was found in the morning dozing on the floor in front of the icons. He was an ascetic and a faster, eating once a day, in the late afternoon, and sometimes forgetting about food altogether. He had great audacity in prayer and prayed as if he were addressing the Lord, the Most Holy Mother of God and all the saints with his own eyes. His meekness and humility resembled the spiritual height of the great fathers of ancient Patristics. Father Juan had no external beauty: he stooped, limped, had his hair disheveled, and often walked barefoot and with his cassock wrinkled. In addition, he had a speech defect that made it difficult for him to communicate with others. But the grace that rested on God's chosen one made all these defects meaningless: the people felt the holiness of Father John and their hearts were drawn to him. Bishop Nicholas of Serbia (Velimirovich), glorified today as a saint, said of the young monk: "If you want to see a living saint, go to Bitol to see Father John." In 1934, Hieromonk John was elevated to the rank of bishop. Father John's modesty was such that when he was summoned to Belgrade to be ordained a bishop, he decided that he had been confused with someone else and then, upon learning that they were talking about himself, he tried to refuse the rank, citing his clumsiness. Bishop John served in Shanghai for almost twenty years. Immediately after arriving in Shanghai, he organized an orphanage for orphans and children of needy parents. Once, during the war, there was nothing to feed the orphans, who were already more than ninety people, but the bishop continued to bring new children. The staff became resentful, and one night Maria Shakhmatova, the orphanage's treasurer, accused Bishop John of forcing others to starve by bringing in new children. Then he asked her what she needed most. Maria Alexandrovna answered that there was no food at all, but that, in the worst case, she needed oatmeal. The Bishop went up to the cell, began to pray and bow, and with such assiduity that even the neighbors began to complain. In the morning an unknown man, apparently English, arrived at the shelter, introduced himself as an employee of a cereal company and said that they had a surplus of oats and that he would like to give them to the children of the orphanage. They began to bring bags of oats to the house, and the Bishop continued his prayer, now of thanksgiving. Refugees fleeing the communists found refuge on the Philippine island of Tubabao, in an International Refugee Organization camp. In 1949, about five thousand Russians from China lived there. The man was also with the refugees. The island was in the path of seasonal typhoons, and for twenty-seven months it was protected from terrible typhoons by the saint's prayer. The Filipinos themselves said that they did not fear calamities because "their saint blesses their camp every night on all four sides." When the camp was evacuated, a terrible typhoon hit the island and completely destroyed all the buildings. Vladyka (bishop) John was honored by both Orthodox and Catholics and Protestants. In one of the Catholic churches in Paris, a local priest told the faithful: "You demand proof, you say that now there are no miracles or saints. Why do I have to give you theoretical proofs, if today Saint John Barefoot walks through the streets of Paris? The blessed death of Saint John occurred on June 19 (July 2), 1966, in the seventy-first year of his difficult life, during his archpriestly visit to the city of Seattle with the miraculous Kursk-Korennaia icon of the Blessed Virgin Mary. After Vladyka's death, a Dutch Orthodox priest wrote: "I no longer have and will never have a spiritual father who calls me at midnight from another continent and tells me: 'Go to sleep now.' What you are praying for, you will receive.” San Francisco has a very humid microclimate, coming from the ocean. The wet and cold fog that envelops the city is one of its hallmarks. When the relics of the saint – who lay in a metal coffin – were removed, the coffin corroded, the clothes decomposed, but the relics remained incorruptible. On July 2, 1994, Saint John the Wonderful of Shanghai and Saint Francis was consecrated a saint. His ecclesiastical glorification took place at the Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church in 2008. Commemoration – June 19 / July 2. Oh Holy Father John, pray to God for us! From the words and sermons of Saint John of Shanghai – The Son of God came to earth and became man to take man to heaven, to make him an inhabitant of paradise again, restoring him to his original state of sinlessness and plenitude, and to unite him to Himself. – The elevated and non-material objective of prayer is worthy of all honor. The highest prayer is the one in which a person forgets all his goals, even the highest ones, burning in one desire: to get as close as possible to the Lord, to put his head at His feet, to give his whole heart. This is perfect love and perfect prayer. When you want to breathe only the Lord, live only from Him, love Him, take refuge in His closeness, in His inexpressible love... Through prayer we connect with another person in a new and better way... Prayer cleanses previous, present and future relationships... – Do not seek grace in any other faith, for the truth is only in the Orthodox Church, of which Christ said: “I will build my Church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18). – It can be said that Christianity has long been preached throughout the earth, but it is predominantly preached in the form of one deviation or another from the true doctrine. Pure and upright Christian doctrine has only been preserved in Orthodoxy, and this is what is preached today in places where it was not known. We are spread throughout the world not only to teach and correct ourselves, but also to fulfill God's will to preach Orthodoxy to the whole world. – Being Orthodox is important because the Orthodox doctrine of God is that revealed by the Son of God himself. – As we worry about the salvation of human souls, we must remember that people also have bodily needs that are loudly proclaimed. It is impossible to preach the Gospel without showing love in deeds. – When the “books” are opened, it will be clear to everyone that the roots of all vices are in the human soul. Here is a drunkard, a fornicator – when the body died, someone will think that the sin died too. No, there was an inclination in the soul and sin was sweet to the soul. And if he did not repent of this sin, did not free himself from it, he will arrive at the Last Judgment with the same desire for the sweetness of sin and will never satisfy his desire. It will have the misery of hatred and malice in it. It's a hellish condition. – The beginning of hell is already here on earth. Paradise also begins in the human soul already in earthly life. There are already touches of Divinity on the day of the Luminous Resurrection and when we worthily receive Holy Communion. – A person can be an atheist only until his death. Afterwards, everyone will be a believer. But it is necessary to choose what will be next now, and as soon as possible. – Until the end of man's earthly life, until the soul leaves the body, the struggle between sin and truth continues within him. No matter how high the spiritual and moral state may be, it is possible to fall gradually or quickly and deeply into the abyss of sin. – The deceased also benefit from memorial services, prayers at home for the deceased and good deeds performed in their memory, such as alms, sacrifices for the church, but especially useful for them is the remembrance in the Divine Liturgy (when the particles taken out for the living and the deceased are immersed in the Blood of the Lord with the words: “Lava, O Lord…”). There were many apparitions of the dead and other events that confirm how beneficial the commemoration of the dead is. Many who died repentant, but did not have time to show it in life, were freed from torment and received peace. – There is no crown without victory, nor victory without feat, nor feat without fight, nor fight without enemies. – Hurry up to do good! Time is short! Sow good works in this temporal life, so that you may reap a hundredfold fruits in eternal life. – He who does not hurry to do good, will not do it. Only the fervent, the sincere, the fervent can do good. Only those who are fast as lightning can be truly good. This lightning speed is an expression of spiritual power, of holy faith. Our God is a consuming fire (Hebrews 12:29). When an object touches fire, it changes: it either burns or hardens. Thus man, by touching God, either perishes or is saved. Fire is always fire! But when you touch it, you get both ash and steel, depending on what you touch. This is what happens with man, and everything depends on what he brings to the Divine fire, on what state he touches God. If it remains like iron, then the strength of iron will become steel. If it blooms to the point of being weak as straw, it will burn. Every person, sooner or later, will inevitably touch God, and woe to him if he does not prepare for that encounter!... The time will come when the power of God will touch us, whether we want it or not... The encounter with the Lord is imminent, and we must prepare for it. Our sins are the straw that burns in this encounter. It is necessary to pronounce on oneself in advance and separate oneself from the chaff, to burn the chaff of sins through repentance. Either they burn alone, or the person who surrendered to sin is burned along with them. We must know the Last Judgment and treat that day and that event accordingly. We must purify our souls, we must pray. We must treat this event clearly and consciously, not like an animal that hides its head so as not to see the danger. Your care for the flock in their wanderings, / this is also the pattern of your prayers for the whole world, which are constantly offered; / so we believe, having known your love, oh holy and portentous Saint John! / All God sanctified by the sacramental work of the Most Pure Mysteries, / by which we are constantly strengthened, / you hasten to help those who suffer, / oh joyful healer. // Hurry to help us too, who honor you with all our hearts