Иоанн готский

John of the Goths, St. [Commemorated May 19 and June 26], bishop of the Gothic diocese, located on the southern coast of Crimea, was born at the beginning of the second quarter of the 8th century. He was Greek by origin. His grandfather moved from the Byzantine seaside to Taurida and here founded his residence in the trading town of Parfenitah (present-day Partenit, at the foot of Mount Ayu-Daga [or Bear Mountain in Gurzuf], not far from Yalta); at least John’s parents, Leo and Photina, were settled residents of this place, which became the saint’s homeland. According to the testimony of the “life” of John (compiled in the first half of the 9th century), “he chose for himself an ascetic life from almost the cradle,” being even before birth dedicated to serving God according to the vow of his (who was long childless) mother. Undoubtedly, only thanks to his outstanding talents and virtues, John could enjoy such great respect among the population of Crimean Gothia that, not yet thirty years of age, he was elected Gothic bishop - after his predecessor, for participating in the iconoclastic council (754) and for signing the abolition of icon veneration, was made by Emperor Constantine Copronymus Metropolitan of Herakleia (Heraclea) Thracian. The election of John as a Gothic bishop, on the one hand, shows the independence of Crimean Gothia from the iconoclast emperor, who otherwise would not have allowed such an election; on the other hand, it marks the complete triumph of Orthodoxy in this country, which did not accept the “innovations of the lawless council” (see “Life”) and in the future was a refuge for people persecuted in the empire for their Orthodox beliefs. John did not immediately become a bishop after his election, but to strengthen himself in the upcoming service he undertook a pilgrimage to Jerusalem and lived in Palestine for three whole years. Only upon returning from there, probably in 758, did he go to Iveria or Georgia and was ordained to the episcopate by the local Catholicos in the ancient Georgian capital Mtskheta (now a small village 22 versts from Tiflis). Having become a bishop, John was especially zealously concerned about protecting his flock from the iconoclastic heresy, which undoubtedly caused some ferment in Gothia. He sends his deacon Longinus to Palestine with a message to the Patriarch of Jerusalem, asking him to convene a council against the iconoclasts and send him an Orthodox statement of faith. The Patriarch, according to the Life, fulfilled this request of John: “having collected sayings from the Old and New Testaments and all the elected fathers about holy icons, honest relics and the intercession of saints, they (i.e., members of the council) sent this to the venerable one.” There is reason to think that this refers to the Jerusalem Council of 733, at which one iconoclast bishop was condemned, and the very heresy of the “holy burners,” i.e., the iconoclasts, was also anathematized. This council took place, probably, regardless of any dependence on the embassy of John, although, perhaps, simultaneously with the arrival in Jerusalem of Deacon Longinus, through whom the decisions of this council were sent to the Gothic bishop - just as the Patriarch of Jerusalem Theodore and the primates of the Western churches were notified about them (at least Pope Constantine reported this to King Pepin in 767). Not limiting himself to the boundaries of his bishopric, John declared himself a zealous champion of Orthodoxy in Constantinople itself. After the death of the iconoclast emperors Constantine and Leo and after the accession of Irene and her son (780), he sent the then Patriarch of Constantinople Paul (probably not previously communicated to the latter) the definitions of the Jerusalem council of 763 and - with the permission of the empress - he himself appeared in Constantinople, where, according to the Life, “he spoke with freedom and boldness about the acceptance of St. icons in the Holy Catholic Church." The “Life” connects with this stay of John in Constantinople the act of Patriarch Paul that struck everyone with its unexpectedness - his removal from his patriarchate to the monastery of the Mother of God of Florov, where he accepted the monastic schema and implored the empress, who came to him with her son, to convene an ecumenical council to condemn the iconoclastic heresy, to which he considered himself involved in the past, due to an insufficiently decisive course of action on his part. in the defense of Orthodoxy, trampled upon by iconoclasts. True, other sources that speak in more detail about this act of Patriarch Paul (the message of the emperors Constantine and Irene, the chronicles of Theophanes and G. Amartol and the Life of Patriarch Tarasius, written by Deacon Ignatius) do not mention John at all; nevertheless, it is quite natural that the Orthodox zeal of the Gothic saint, full of energy and boldness, really made a deep impression on the Orthodox in soul, but not bold enough, Patriarch Paul and prompted him to such a decisive act. John himself was not present at the seventh ecumenical council, but had his representative there in the person of monk Cyril. The assumption that John died before this council and Cyril was the representative of his successor Bishop Nikita (see the article by Archbishop [† Bishop of Kirillov] Arseny [Ivashchenko], “The Gothic Diocese in the Crimea” in the “Journal of Min. Nar. Prosv.” 1873, No. 1), cannot be accepted, because the reference to signatures in the minutes of the cathedral meetings is not convincing in view of the obvious malfunction of these signatures: Cyril appears here either as a representative of Nikita, Bishop of Gothia (in the minutes of the 1st and 3rd meetings), then as a Bishop of Gothia (in the minutes of the 2nd meeting), then as a representative of John, Bishop of Goths (in the minutes of the 4th meeting, where for the first time - instead of a simple listing of the members of the council - there are their own signatures), then, finally, as a representative of Nicopolis, Bishop Gothia (in the minutes of the 7th meeting, where the signatures of the council members were again required). The “Life” leaves no doubt that John survived the 7th Ecumenical Council, since after mentioning this council as an accomplished fact, it proceeds to present further events from the life of the saint, which characterize him from a new perspective - as a national figure of the Crimean Gothia. Probably in the late eighties of the 8th century. The Goths were attacked by the Khazars. They captured the capital of Gothia and the throne city of the diocese, Doros, fortified on an impregnable rock, and stationed their garrison here. Then the whole country had to call upon itself the power of the Khazar Kagan. Although the Khazars did not threaten the religious freedom of the Goths, for they were distinguished by complete religious tolerance, John became the head of a national movement aimed at liberating the country from the yoke of Asian aliens. At first, this enterprise was successful: the Goths, led by their bishop, expelled the Khazar garrison from Doros and captured fortified mountain passes; but then, as a result of some catastrophe, John found himself in the Khazar prison in Fullah. The Life only says that he was “betrayed by one village,” in which the party of Khazar adherents probably prevailed. Having lost the main leader of the uprising, the Goths submitted to the Kagan. The monk managed to escape from prison to Amastris, where he died four years later, having predicted his death forty days in advance. George was the bishop of Amastrid at that time, and it is reliably known about him that he became a bishop after 787 - another proof that John survived the 7th Ecumenical Council. Thus, the most likely date for John's death is the last decade of the 8th century. The body of the saint was transported by ship to Gothia and buried in his homeland in Partenit, in the monastery of the Holy Apostles that he built. This is confirmed by the discovery in 1871 by the artist Strukov on the southern coast of Crimea in the estate of the city of Raevsky Partenit, significant remains of a vast Christian church; Among the latter, a stone was found with a clearly preserved Greek inscription, which was made in 1425. under Metropolitan Damian and names John as the original builder of the open church in honor of the Apostles Peter and Paul, even calling him archbishop of the city of Theodoro (otherwise Doros) and all of Gothia.