EXCLUSIVE, BY THE RELICS OF THE MIRACLE-WORKING SAINT: John of Shanghai, the greatest Russian saint, was Serbian on his father’s side, celebrated a family patron saint’s day, and was tonsured in Serbia! (VIDEO)

Saint John of Shanghai and San Francisco, one of the greatest Orthodox spiritual figures of the past three centuries, is celebrated and revered mainly by Russian believers. Although this saint was Serbian on his father’s side, celebrated a Serbian slava, completed Serbian theological studies, was tonsured in a Serbian monastery, and was consecrated as a bishop in the Serbian capital, Belgrade…

Why this is so can today only be a matter of discussion. It is probably due to those banal reasons, since this magnificent man, whose secular name was Mikhail Borisovich Maximovich, was born in Russia, and among us Serbs there is that saying: Out of sight, out of mind! In this case, far from history and reverence…

And everything recorded during the life of John of Shanghai was wondrous and became part of history.

He earned his status long before his repose; he was a living saint who walked the earth and worked miracles, saved people, above all the poor, the displaced, and refugees.

In Serbia he also began one of the rarest and most difficult ascetic feats – the feat of sleeplessness, in which he persevered for 40 years, until the end of his life.

To stay beside his relics in the Church of the Mother of God in San Francisco was a special feeling, so see what was recorded in the report from that holy place and what our editor Antonije Kovačević revealed about Saint John of Shanghai…

A refugee from Serbia received a name after the family saint

John of Shanghai and San Francisco (Russ. Ioann Shankhayskiy i San-Frantsisskiy) was born as Mikhail Maximovich on June 4, 1896, in Russia, in the Kharkov Governorate, in the small town of Adamovsky.

ORIGIN: Church in Adamovsky, Kharkov region, today’s Ukraine

He came from an old noble family, and his father Boris Maximovich was of Serbian origin; therefore the family retained the celebration of Saint Archangel Michael, after whom he received his baptismal name, while he was called John when he was tonsured.

SLAVA: The Mihailović family retained the custom of celebrating the slava of Saint Archangel Michael

The Maximovich family fled from Serbia to Russia in the 17th century, before the onslaught of Turkish conquerors. The Serbian language was never neglected in the home, so little Mikhail spoke it from an early age. Interestingly, besides him, another member of the Maximovich family was proclaimed a saint – Saint John of Tobolsk, a Siberian missionary. His mother Glafira, as well as the entire family, stood out for exceptional piety.

An officer and warrior in the fight against communists

Even as a boy Mikhail Maximovich differed from other children: he spoke with difficulty, ate little, and did not like gymnastics or dancing. His French governess converted to Orthodoxy under the boy’s influence.

Nevertheless, Misha did not immediately take the path of serving God.

At eighteen, Mikhail completed the Poltava Cadet Corps and enrolled in the Faculty of Law at the Imperial University of Kharkov, where he graduated four years later. During those years, the prominent Russian theologian, then Archbishop of Kharkov Antony Khrapovitsky, was also there. The doors of his episcopal residence were always open not only to theology students, but to all young people interested in matters of faith. Thus came the meeting between Misha Maximovich and Bishop Antony, which left an indelible mark on the soul of the pious Mikhail.

ON THE OPPOSITE SIDE: He fought against Lenin and the communists

When the October Revolution broke out in Russia, Officer Maximovich went to war on the side of the Tsar, fighting the Bolsheviks. He was wounded in the right leg and because of that remained lame for the rest of his life.

Refugee days in Serbia – from street newspaper seller to monk

The horrors of the October upheaval and the civil war did not bypass the Maximovich family, which, sharing the fate of several million Russian refugees, found itself outside the homeland and, after many wanderings, in Serbia, in Belgrade, where there was then a large Russian colony.

NOBLEMAN, OFFICER, NEWSPAPER SELLER: Belgrade, Bajloni Market, 1926

A renewed meeting with Metropolitan Antony was of decisive importance for Mikhail. Living as a refugee in poverty, the former nobleman earned a living for his family by selling daily newspapers, among them “Politika,” in Knez Mihailova Street and in front of the Cathedral Church, in which he later served for some time. It was recorded that Misha did not run through the streets, but would silently stand, as they say most often in front of the National Theatre, yet even so he would very quickly sell out the copies. Everyone in Belgrade knew this unusual and poor newspaper seller by the fact that he went barefoot both in winter and summer. Every morning he would first go to the Patriarchate to sell newspapers to the clerks there. None of them knew that the diligent newspaper seller had already completed two faculties, that he was a nobleman and an ascetic.

SERVED THERE FOR A TIME: Cathedral Church in Belgrade

In Belgrade he then enrolled and in 1925 completed the Faculty of Theology. He regularly attended services in Russian churches in Belgrade and Sremski Karlovci, where Metropolitan Antony most often resided, now the head of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia, whose seat was precisely in Serbia.

In the Russian church in Belgrade at Tašmajdan, Metropolitan Antony elevated him to the rank of reader. Mikhail then decided to leave secular life and withdraw to a monastery. At that time, the center of monastic life in Serbia was at the Miljkovo Monastery near Svilajnac, where many Russian and Serbian monks gathered around the prominent spiritual father Archimandrite Ambrose Kurganov. He was tonsured at Miljkovo Monastery in 1925 on the Feast of the Entry of the Theotokos, taking the name John, after his ancestor John of Tobolsk.

BEGAN THE MONASTIC FEAT: Miljkovo Monastery near Svilajnac

Then Father John also took upon himself one of the most difficult ascetic vows – the feat of sleeplessness, in which he persevered for a full 40 years, until his blessed repose.

Encounter with Bishop Nikolaj Velimirović

From 1925 to 1927 he taught religious instruction at the gymnasium in Kikinda. In 1929 the Holy Synod of the Serbian Orthodox Church appointed him a substitute teacher at the Seminary in the Ohrid Diocese in Bitola. The Ohrid Diocese was then governed by Bishop Nikolaj Velimirović, of whom John said that he was “the Chrysostom of our days,” while Bishop Nikolaj told students about Saint John that he was “an angel of God in human form and a living saint.”

REVEALED THE SAINT IN HIM: Bishop Nikolaj Velimirović

And then the sanctity of Father John was already clearly manifested. Saint Bishop Nikolaj was the first to discover it, often saying: “If you want to see a living saint – go to Father John.” At the same time, he formed a lasting friendship with Bishop Nikolaj, as well as with Saint Justin Popović. The two of them, Bishop Nikolaj and John of Shanghai, were most responsible for the canonization of Saint John of Kronstadt.

His disciples began to follow him and even placed various sharp objects in his bed, thus establishing that he did not use a bed at all, but prayed to God throughout the night and only dozed a little on his knees before the icons. But they also discovered that every night he went around all their rooms, blessed them as they slept, and covered them with blankets so they would not catch cold.

DID NOT SLEEP, BUT CARED FOR THEM: The bishop with his students

The seminary students noticed that Father John ate little, only once a day, that he never got angry and never slept, but spent nights kneeling before an icon. From the day of his monastic tonsure until his death he never slept in a bed. Since he never slept, it happened that he would sometimes be overcome by sleep during class.

In Bitola he soon became known as a benefactor and philanthropist. Father John Maximovich especially revered Saint Naum of Ohrid, as he had the power to heal the mentally ill. With the icon of Saint Naum he visited hospitals and prayed for the health of the sick. From that time date the stories of his miraculous healing powers.

He even began to learn the Macedonian language.

During those years another attitude that he held throughout his life was clearly manifested – there is only Orthodoxy and Orthodox brethren, regardless of nationality.

He refused the episcopal throne, claiming it was a mistake

In 1934 Father John appeared in Belgrade. To acquaintances who asked what he was doing there he explained that it was a mistake: “They elected some John as bishop, and informed him to come.” The next day he explained that the mistake was even greater because they had elected him as bishop. As a reason for refusing this great honor he cited his speech impediment, but in the Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia they pointed out to him the example of the Old Testament prophet Moses, who was a stutterer.

In the Russian Church of the Holy Trinity at Tašmajdan, on May 28 (old calendar) 1934, Metropolitan Antony consecrated Father John as Bishop of Shanghai of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia, and this was the last consecration of that prominent head of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia.

HERE HE WAS CONSECRATED AS BISHOP: Russian Church at Tašmajdan, Belgrade

In the accompanying letter to the flock in Shanghai, Bishop Antony also wrote these words: “…I send him as my soul, as my heart… He is a miracle of ascetic purity and strictness in this time of our general spiritual decline.”

Departure for Shanghai – hundreds of thousands of Chinese convert to Orthodoxy

Bishop John of Shanghai arrived in Shanghai on the Feast of the Entry of the Theotokos that same year. At that time there were hundreds of thousands of Russian refugees in China, many of them precisely in Shanghai. Bishop John, although not a man “of this world,” with his enormous spiritual authority managed to complete the great cathedral church of the Most Holy Theotokos, a parish house, an old-age home, centers for food assistance to the poor, a gymnasium, and orphanages for children without parents.

CONVERTED MANY CHINESE TO ORTHODOXY: Bishop John in Shanghai

The main help to the flock were prayers, his miraculous healings of hopelessly ill patients, and great help to those in need on other occasions. In Shanghai he founded the famous Saint Tikhon of Zadonsk Orphanage, which sheltered around 4,000 children. He found the unfortunate and abandoned youngsters in the corners of Shanghai neighborhoods, starving and sick. Visits to the mentally ill affected him deeply and he prayed especially for them.

CHILDREN WERE HIS GREATEST CONCERN: The bishop opened an orphanage and gathered them from the streets

Numerous testimonies of formerly terminally ill people whom John of Shanghai helped have been preserved. He founded the Chinese Orthodox Church and established close ties with the Orthodox Churches of Serbia, Ukraine, and Greece. Thanks to his missionary work and love, hundreds of thousands of Chinese converted to Orthodoxy.

When he received a transfer to San Francisco, all the wards of the orphanage followed him to the United States of America.

American days and the miracle on a Philippine island

He then became Bishop of Western America and San Francisco, and in the new country continued his old mission – he built churches, orphanages, hospitals, old-age homes, schools, soup kitchens in this city, rescued abandoned children from the streets at night, visited the sick in hospitals and homes, people in distress and at the point of death, prayed for them, communed them, and miraculously healed them. He most often appeared uninvited, revealing with his clairvoyant spiritual eye who needed his help and intercession, and he would also appear very quickly to those who invoked him in prayer, even where all gates were locked and under strict supervision.

CARED FOR THE SICK: Saint John of Shanghai in his mission

When communists came to power in China and Russian refugees were threatened by new danger, Bishop John managed in 1949 to save around ten thousand of his parishioners and via the Philippines transfer most of them to America. The camp for the flock of the Holy Bishop was located on the island of Tubabao.

DISPELLED HURRICANES WITH HIS PRAYERS: St. John in the Philippines

It was the season of devastating typhoons. But all of them, to the great surprise of the natives, constantly bypassed that very island. The locals discovered with amazement that the Bishop walked around the camp every night and prayed. Only after the Bishop transferred all his wards to America did a terrible hurricane completely destroy the entire camp.

While he spent four years in the Philippines, praying at night to all four corners of the world, hurricanes bypassed the island, only to strike again after St. John of Shanghai left it.

The French called him “Saint John the Barefoot,” all of Europe venerates him

After the communists came to power in China, the Russians again went into exile. Bishop John was with them.

In 1951 the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia appointed Bishop John as Archbishop of Western Europe. He came to Paris. He served the Divine Liturgy in Russian, Serbian, Greek, English, Dutch, French, Chinese, and Church Slavonic, standing barefoot in the altar, considering himself unworthy to tread shod before the Holy Throne, for which reason in France he was also called Saint John the Barefoot.

He never missed a single day without serving the Liturgy. He visited numerous Western European cities and revived the memory of Western saints. He taught that every country must honor its local saints as much as the other great Orthodox saints. Thanks to him, the first consecration of a bishop for the Orthodox Church of France was also performed.

Even while residing in Europe, Bishop John tirelessly helped his flock, especially the sick, the poor, and abandoned children. He helped Orthodox French, Dutch, and Germans. In a short time this modest and unusual Russian bishop became known throughout Europe.

He further intensified his ascetic feat: both in summer and winter he wore only sandals, without socks.

While he served in Paris they called him John the Barefoot because he often went barefoot. He did not wear shoes because his legs were constantly swollen, since almost no one ever saw him lie down and rest. He had the gift of supernatural memory and clairvoyance.

A memorial service in the middle of a Marseille street – in honor of a Serbian king!

It happened that a train from Versailles was delayed in departure because the engineer was waiting for the “Russian saint.” It is interesting that the Bishop searched for the relics of saints and, upon finding them, celebrated them, as they were saints from before the division of the Western and Eastern Christian Church.

For Serbs, one case from the “European” period of Bishop John’s life is interesting. One day, arriving in Marseille, he went out to the middle of a very busy square, put on his epitrachelion, lit charcoal in the censer, and began to serve a memorial service. Traffic was stopped and people gathered. When he finished the service, he explained to those gathered that at that place a Orthodox monarch had been criminally murdered – King Alexander Karađorđević of Yugoslavia.

IN HONOR OF THE MURDERED MONARCH: King Alexander in Marseille, before the assassination

The European period of the life and labor on the “field of Christ” of Saint Bishop John lasted a little over ten years. The Holy Synod of the Russian Church Outside Russia then transferred Bishop John from Europe to America as Archbishop of San Francisco to assist in completing the construction of the great Cathedral Church there dedicated to the Most Holy Theotokos.

Service under the jurisdiction of the Serbian Orthodox Church, persecution and trial

Saint Bishop John arrived at his new episcopal duty on the Feast of the Entry of the Theotokos in 1962. There he became the spiritual father of Saint Seraphim Rose. By his blessing, Seraphim Rose founded the Monastery of Saint Herman of Alaska in Platina, California, which became a nursery of Orthodoxy in the United States of America.

BUILT THE CHURCH, BURIED IN IT: Cathedral of the Mother of God in San Francisco

As members of the Russian Church Outside Russia, the Serbian Orthodox Church provided them with wholehearted assistance and accepted them under its wing as an integral part of the SOC. Thus began the shortest, but also the most arduous part of his archpastoral service. The Bishop was forced to reconcile the flock, to fight secret enemies in the Synod, and even ended up in an American civil court, accused of embezzling some money for the new church. Of course – he was acquitted, but he was terribly shaken and humiliated. In court he was defended by Bishop Sava Saračević, a lawyer by profession, a great admirer and fellow laborer of the Holy Bishop.

Criticism over celebrating Halloween

Although among his parishioners there were many of his “Shanghai people,” there were also old emigrants who had already become fully “Americanized” and demanded that all holidays be celebrated exclusively on Sundays, insisted that benches be placed in churches so that everyone could sit just like Catholics or in other non-Orthodox houses of worship. The Bishop energetically opposed these innovations.

It happened that he would unexpectedly burst into a “ball” on the occasion of the holiday “Halloween” and rebuke his flock for not being at the vigil. In a word, these were restless years for the already quite exhausted Bishop.

Death in prayer, before the holy icon

In mid-July 1966, the Bishop brought the miracle-working Kursk Root Icon of the Sign to Seattle.

In the Church of Saint Nicholas in Seattle he served the Liturgy on July 2, 1966, on Saint Naum of Ohrid. As was his custom, after the service he remained in the altar for another three hours. Then he went to the parish house and there he died. He reposed quietly in his room where he always stayed. On the day of his death he prayed before the miracle-working icon of the Most Holy Theotokos (“Kurskaya-Korennaya”). Before it he died. His weary body, after 40 years of ascetic labor, was laid on a bed. He was buried five days later in the Cathedral Church of the Mother of God in San Francisco, where his relics are today.

TRANSFER OF THE RELICS: Priests placed his relics in a coffin in the churchyard

His funeral, attended by thousands upon thousands of pilgrims, was transformed from sorrow into a joyful celebration of the victory of life over death. His room was turned into a chapel, in which services have been held ever since. Beneath it, the American missionary parish of Saint Nectarios of Aegina was founded, whom Saint John greatly revered and loved.

INCORRUPT RELICS: Removal of the remains of Saint John of Shanghai from the sarcophagus

The relics of Saint John of Shanghai were exhumed in 1993, incorrupt and almost completely white, as if he had just passed away, and today they rest in the church dedicated to the icon of the Mother of God “Joy of All Who Sorrow” in San Francisco, which he built.

How Patriarch Pavle contributed to John of Shanghai becoming a saint

From the holy oil of the lamp above his relics, countless people have received healing. He is the protector of travelers, especially those who fly by airplane, of the sick, children, orphans, widows, alcohol and drug addicts, the unjustly accused, the mentally ill, a repeller of enemy attacks and demons, and a swift helper during great weather disasters, traffic accidents, and other dangers.

The relics of Saint John of Shanghai immediately became a gathering place for many pilgrims from the entire ecumene.

Serbian Patriarch Pavle visited the saint’s grave in 1992 during his historic visit to the United States of America. Archbishop John of Shanghai had not yet been canonized at that time, but Patriarch Pavle venerated his relics as those of a saint and chanted a troparion to him.

Such veneration by an Orthodox patriarch at the grave of Archbishop John decisively influenced the final decision of the Russian Church Outside Russia regarding his canonization.

He was proclaimed (canonized) a saint on July 2, 1994, by the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia in San Francisco, California, as Saint John of Shanghai and San Francisco.

He is considered one of the greatest Orthodox saints of the 20th century.

John of Shanghai wrote the following about himself:

“Since I can remember myself, I have wanted to serve justice and truth. My parents ignited in me an unshakeable aspiration to fight for the truth, and my soul rejoiced in the examples of those who sacrificed their lives for it.”

All the miracles of John of Shanghai

There are extensive books and records about how Saint Bishop John was clairvoyant and how, through his prayers, various miraculous healings and other forms of God’s grace toward those in distress occurred.

On this occasion we will dwell only on some of them:

– Anna Lushnikova was seriously wounded during the war in 1945. She was dying in the hospital. She asked that Bishop John be called to commune her. Outside there was terrible weather. Doctors and nurses tried to convince Anna that no one could come in such weather, that it was wartime and movement at night was forbidden. But the dying Anna insisted, even loudly calling for the Bishop. Suddenly Bishop John appeared at the door, soaked and out of breath. “I touched him to make sure he was not a spirit,” Anna said in her memories. He smiled, confessed Anna, and communed her. Another patient saw all this. Anna slept for 18 hours and woke up recovered. The surprised hospital staff did not believe in the Bishop’s visit: the storm, the locked hospital building, the curfew… However, Anna remembered that the Bishop had placed a 20-dollar bill under her pillow as help for treatment. She lifted the pillow and everyone saw the bill. Soon she left the hospital completely healthy.

In the archive of the Shanghai State Hospital there remained the following record: A girl named Lyudmila Sadovska was admitted in a hopeless condition after falling from a horse. Her pulse was weak, her head crushed, fragments of skull bones had injured the brain. Her sister ran to get the Bishop. He soon came, asked everyone to leave the room, and spent several hours in prayer. Then he called the chief physician to re-examine the patient. Everyone was surprised: the pulse was normal, the condition so improved that Lyudmila was immediately operated on, and that in the presence of the Bishop. The operation was successful, Lyudmila spoke, did not lose her sight…

Saint Bishop John was spiritually bound to Metropolitan Antony Khrapovitsky, who had been his spiritual father for many years, guided him toward monasticism, tonsured him, ordained him to the priesthood, and finally consecrated him as bishop. Close associates of the holy bishop say that on July 28, 1936, while sitting in his office, Bishop John suddenly complained of some pain in his heart. The next day they were informed that on that day Metropolitan Antony had died in Sremski Karlovci.

Once the holy bishop was called to urgently commune a man who was dying in a hospital. Taking the Holy Gifts, the bishop went there accompanied by a priest. First they encountered a young man playing the accordion. He was cheerful because he had recovered and was soon to leave the hospital. The holy bishop addressed him and said: “I would like to commune you now.” The young man was pious, confessed and communed. The surprised priest asked the holy bishop why he did not hurry to the dying man, but lingered with a healthy person. The holy bishop replied: “This one will die tonight, and the one who is seriously ill will live many more years.” And so it happened.

A Russian Jewish woman had a sick boy. She tried everything to heal him, but nothing helped. Someone told her about the Russian “Batiushka John.” She went to the church where the holy bishop was serving and asked him to pray for her son Misha (she hid her son’s name, fearing that the holy bishop would not pray for a Jewish child). The holy bishop looked at her in despair and said: “Woman, go in peace! I will pray for your son Moses.” She was greatly astonished when she heard her child’s true Jewish name. Soon the boy recovered and became Michael through baptism.

The holy bishop abundantly helps with his prayers even after his repose. Here is the testimony of Vera Terekhova from San Francisco. Her friend Anna became seriously ill. A terrible virus attacked her brain. She had been in a coma for a week. Vera went to the Church of the Mother of God which the Holy Bishop built and where his relics rest, went down into the crypt (at that time the bishop had not yet been canonized) and placed a slip with Anna’s name under the miter of Saint John that was on his sarcophagus. Later she learned that at that very moment Anna opened her eyes. Soon she fully recovered.

Commemoration of the saint bishop’s day in Belgrade

In Serbia, in Belgrade, there are elderly people who had the opportunity to see and hear Saint Bishop John of Shanghai. Either as a professor at the Seminary or as a bishop in service. Of course – there are fewer and fewer of them. But it is very comforting that there are more and more young people who read the life of the Saint Bishop, pray to him, and want to learn as much as possible about his life and miracles.

HERE THE LITURGY IS SERVED AND RELICS ARE KEPT: Church of Saint Tryphon, Belgrade

Such a desire was visibly expressed by young pious members of the spiritual community “Kampsade,” gathered around their spiritual father, the head of the Church of Saint Tryphon at the Topčider Cemetery, Protopresbyter-Stavrophor Father Dejan Dejanović. For many years, on the day of the blessed repose of the Saint Bishop, the Divine Liturgy has been served in the Church of Saint Tryphon. The church keeps the icon of the Entry of the Mother of God before which the Saint Bishop prayed, and on whose reverse it is written that it is a gift of his grateful flock in Shanghai and that the icon was presented to him on the second anniversary of his arrival in Shanghai on the Feast of the Entry of the Theotokos in 1936.

Since December 2008, by the blessing of Patriarch Pavle, a particle of the relics of Saint John of Shanghai brought from San Francisco has been kept in the Church of Saint Tryphon – a great shrine and a gift of God to our Orthodox Serbian people.