(Eventually, after he was hospitalized with an infected foot, his Metropolitan ordered him to wear shoes thereafter, he wore sandals). Even in the United States, even while serving the Divine Liturgy (which he did every day), he went barefoot in all seasons. His Bishop's "miter" was often a cloth cap to which he had glued paper icons. His appearance was striking: His cassock was made of blue Chinese "peasant cloth," crudely decorated with crosses stitched by orphans who had been in his care in Shanghai. When the Archbishop had prayed outside each room, he returned to the beginning of his circuit and began praying again and so he spent the entire night.Įven as Archbishop, he lived in near-absolute poverty. Years later, when he visited Holy Trinity Monastery in Jordanville, New York, the priest responsible for hosting him found the saint walking through the halls of the monastery, standing outside the door of each room and praying for the monk or seminarian sleeping within. Once, in Shanghai, a caretaker, investigating strange noises in the cathedral after midnight, discovered Bishop John standing in the belltower, looking down on the city and praying for the people. During his life and ever since, numerous miraculous healings of all manner of afflictions have been accomplished through his prayers. Throughout his life as monk and hierarch he was revered (and sometimes condemned) for his ascetical labors and unceasing intercessions. He served as Bishop in Paris and Brussels, then, in 1962 was made Archbishop of San Francisco. When the Communists took power in China, he labored tirelessly to evacuate his flock to safety, first to the Philippines, then to various western countries including the United States. In 1934 he was made Bishop of Shanghai (in the Russian Church Abroad), where he served not only the Russian emigre community but a number of native Chinese Orthodox from time to time he served the Divine Liturgy in Chinese. Whether his seminarians followed his counsels we do not know, but he himself not only followed but exceeded them. Teaching seminarians in Serbia, he instructed them each day to devote six hours to divine services, six hours to prayer (not including the divine services!), six hours to good works, and six hours to rest (these six hours obviously included eating and bathing as well as sleeping). From the time of his entry into monastic life he adopted a severely ascetical way of life: for the rest of his life he never slept in a bed, sleeping only briefly in a chair or prostrated before the icons. In 1921 his family fled the Russian Revolution to Serbia, where he became a monk and was ordained a priest. † St John (Maximovich), Archbishop of Shanghai and San Francisco (1966) (June 19 OC) This brightly-shining Saint of our own day was born in Russia in 1896. Again, the multitude of miracles wrought through the robe revealed its presence, and it became known to the Emperor Leo and to the Orthodox people in general. The two pilgrims stole the garment and brought it to Blachernae near Constantinople, where they built a church dedicated to Sts Peter and Paul, and secretly deposited the robe there. The old woman was a descendant of one of two virgins who had attended the Theotokos before her dormition in her last days on earth she had given each of them one of her garments as a blessing. Seeing the miracles wrought in a small shrine in her house, they learned from her that she had the robe of the most holy Mother of God stored in a small chest in her house. July 2 † The Placing of the Honorable Robe of the Most Holy Theotokos at Blachernae During the reign of Leo the Great (457-474), two noblemen on pilgrimage to the Holy Land stayed at the home of an old widow. But a doctor and a former teacher who envied their reputation lured them into the countryside on the pretext of collecting herbs, then killed them. At this he proclaimed the truth of Christianity and released them. The brothers refused to do so, but to show the truth of the Christian faith, they healed the Emperor of a grave infirmity. According to the Prologue, they were summoned before the Emperor Galerius, who interrogated them and commanded them to worship the gods. As Christian physicians, they freely performed their healing services for men and for beasts, asking the healed only to believe in Christ in thanks for their healing. Though they inherited great wealth, they gave most of it to the poor and needy, only setting aside enough for themselves to devote their lives to the service of Christ. The two commemorated today were brothers from Rome. July 1 † Holy and Wonderworking Unmercenaries Cosmas and Damian, martyrs at Rome (284) There are three pairs of Unmercenary Physicians named Cosmas and Damian.
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