Ms. Elissa Bjeletich: You know, there’s a very beloved saint in America whose feast day was July 2.

Ms. Kristina Wenger: That’s right. Every July, we celebrate St. John Maximovitch, the Wonder-worker of Shanghai and San Francisco.

Ms. Bjeletich: Did you know that St. John’s relics are at the Joy-of-All-Who-Sorrow Cathedral in San Francisco? Have you ever visited them?

Ms. Wenger: St. John is beloved by a lot of Americans, both because of his holy life here on our own soil and because of the many miracles he’s worked since his death.

Ms. Bjeletich: He was born in Russia in 1896, and actually he was baptized with the name Michael, after the Archangel Michael. He was a frail and sickly boy who loved to study. Michael’s family attended church regularly, and they took him to visit holy icons and the relics of holy people. He studied in a military school, and then he got his law degree. But then there was a revolution in Russia, and the Communists took over, and Michael’s family was able to escape to Belgrade, Yugoslavia. Michael wasn’t finished with his school yet. He wanted to learn about theology, about God, so in 1925, he got a theological degree. Soon, he became a monk and a deacon.

Ms. Wenger: When you become a monk, it’s like you’re beginning a whole new life, so you have a new name. From that day on, he was no longer known as Michael, but he was John. And that’s how we know him, as St. John Maximovitch, not St. Michael.

John was humble all of his life. When he was summoned to Belgrade to be consecrated as a bishop, he told someone whom he met on a streetcar that he had been accidentally summoned to see another monk named John be ordained as bishop. The next day, when he met up with the same woman again by chance, he told her that the mistake was even worse than he had originally expected, because they actually wanted to make him the bishop! But he did not feel that he was worthy of that position.

Ms. Bjeletich: After his ordination, Bishop John was sent first to Shanghai to look after the many Russians who had fled the Soviets in Russia, and ended up in China. While he was there, he tenderly cared for his flock. He led the completion of a beautiful cathedral there, and he improved religious education in the Church.

John was Russian, so people addressed him with the Russian title: Vladyka John. Vladyka was so humble. He did not care about how he looked. Even though he was a bishop, he wore clothing made from inexpensive material, and he usually walked barefoot. Even when he was told to wear sandals, since the Russian word for “wear” also means “carry,” he would just tuck the sandals under his arm, so he was indeed “carrying” his sandals.

Vladyka John loved children, and he especially had a heart for orphans. When he first came to Shanghai, he found eight orphans there and immediately started an orphanage. He got the ladies from his parish to form a committee to rent a house and to open up a hostel for orphans or any children whose parents were in need.

Over 3,000 would come through the orphanage, and every one of them had a traumatic story. There was, for example, a boy named Paul, who had witnessed his father and mother being killed violently by the Communists right in front of his eyes. This terrible trauma made him mute; he didn’t talk, and he could not even pronounce his own name. He was like a trapped animal; he was afraid of everyone, and he was always fighting and spitting. The ladies were worried to bring him into the already overcrowded orphanage, in case he might hurt the other children. When Vladyka John heard about this boy, he dropped everything immediately to go see him. Vladyka said, “I know that you’ve lost your father, but now you’ve found another one: me.” And he hugged him. And the boy burst into tears, and his speech returned to him.

At that time, there were a lot of wars in China, and Chinese families had a lot of children and very little food. Sometimes they would decide that they couldn’t afford another child, and place a newborn baby out on the street to freeze to death. Sometimes also if a child had a defect, like a club foot or a cleft lip and palate, they would be left outside to freeze to death. Vladyka John would walk the streets at night. He’d listen for the abandoned babies’ cries, and he would pick them up and bring them to the orphanage.

At one point, news stories began to report that in the most dangerous part of Shanghai, sometimes baby girls would be thrown away to die, and dogs would come eat them. Vladyka John told one of his parishioners, Mrs. Shakhmatova, to go and buy two bottles of Chinese vodka. Of course, she was horrified. Why would the bishop want her to buy vodka? She was even more horrified when Vladyka demanded that she come along with him into these terribly dangerous neighborhoods at night? Everyone knew that was a good way to get yourself killed! Fearless as ever, the young bishop insisted on going there, walking through dark alleys in the worst neighborhood.

As they walked, seeing drunk people and dangerous-looking characters everywhere, they heard a growl from a drunken man sitting in a dark doorway, and also the faint moan of a baby in the nearby garbage can. When Vladyka moved toward the baby, the drunk man growled as if to warn him to stay away. Then Vladyka John calmly turned to Mrs. Shakhmatova and said, “Hand me a bottle.” Holding the bottle in one hand and pointing to the garbage can with the other, Vladyka John, without words, offered a trade, and the two walked away with the baby girl in their arms. That night, the bishop returned to the orphanage with two more babies under his arms.

Ms. Wenger: Even then he was already known as a miracle worker, because he prayed for whoever would ask him, and often his prayers would be answered immediately! Vladyka John visited the sick daily, praying for them and doing whatever he could to help them. One time, a woman was thrown from her horse. Her skull was crushed; her pulse was faint—doctors did not believe that she would live through the night. Vladyka John visited her and prayed over her for two hours, and the woman’s pulse returned to normal. She grew strong enough that they decided to do surgery, even though they thought she would still be deaf and blind. But the surgery was a complete success, through the prayers of the holy bishop.

Once he went to the hospital to see a young man who doctors thought was dying. He walked into the room and saw the young sick man, and he also saw his roommate, a talkative, energetic young man who was happy to be heading home the next morning. Vladyka John immediately told the energetic man that he must receive holy Communion. The young man made his confession and received Communion, and Vladyka left. People followed him out and asked him why he had not visited with the dying man he had come to see, and Vladyka answered that they had it all wrong: the sickly man would live for many years, but the energetic one would die that night—and he was right.

To this day, Vladyka John cares for the sick, and he intercedes for people who ask for his help, whether or not they are Orthodox. When China became Communist, and Christians were no longer welcome there, Vladyka John and his flock had to leave. The whole Russian Orthodox community came, and they brought all the orphans Vladyka had gathered, and they found refuge on an island in the Philippines where they were allowed to live in a refugee camp. Now, refugee camps are kind of like towns for people who have come from far away, but the buildings aren’t very well built or comfortable, and the people are usually stuck there. So this particular refugee camp was on an island that was an especially difficult place to live, because it was always being hit by typhoons, which are like hurricanes. Can you imagine? Being stuck on a refugee camp, while it’s being torn apart by high winds and flooded by heavy rains? It must have been a really difficult place to live.

But when Vladyka brought his people to the island, he would walk around the refugee camp every night, praying and blessing the camp, and for two years and three months, not a single typhoon came to that island. When Vladyka was able to get his people, including the orphans, relocated out of the refugee camp and into safe homes in Australia and in the United States, they left that camp—and just two months later, no longer protected by Vladyka John’s powerful prayers, the camp was flattened.

Ms. Bjeletich: Vladyka John spent some time overseeing the Russian Church in Western Europe, where he got a new nickname. Because he dressed so humbly and went around without shoes, walking the streets and going to every hospital to visit the sick, the French called him St. John the Barefoot.

But eventually, Vladyka John was sent to San Francisco, California. He worked to build a beautiful cathedral there, dedicated to the Virgin Mary, Joy of All Who Sorrow. He built an orphanage and a school there, too. He had so many spiritual children who came to him for confession and for spiritual advice. Many wrote him long letters, and he answered every one of them. You know, he didn’t lie down to sleep at night, but he sat up at his desk all night, praying and answering letters. In fact, people eventually learned that, ever since he was tonsured a monk, Vladyka John never lay down to sleep. He might doze in his chair for an hour or two, here and there, but he never lay down in a bed. He walked the city at night, or he sat up writing to his beloved spiritual children. He was always working for the Lord.

In 1966, Vladyka John was supposed to take a trip up to Seattle, to one of his churches, who would be hosting a visit from the beautiful and miraculous Kursk Root icon. A few days earlier, Vladyka spoke with the manager of the orphanage, who asked about a big meeting that would be held three years later, and Vladyka said, “I will not be here then.” He said, “I will die soon, at the end of June. Not in San Francisco, but in Seattle.” On the evening before his departure for Seattle, four days before his death, Vladyka had just blessed a man who kissed his hand, and he said to him, “You will not kiss my hand again.” Vladyka knew that God was going to bring him home soon.

Throughout his years of ministry, the archbishop always arrived early to church and stayed late. One reason it took him so long to leave was that each time he left the church, he reverenced the icons as if saying good-bye to dear friends. And on the day of his death in Seattle, after the Divine Liturgy, he spent three hours in the altar praying. He died in his room in the parish building next to the church. They heard him fall, and they ran to him, helping him into his chair, and witnessing his last peaceful breaths in the presence of the miracle-working Kursk Root icon.

Ms. Wenger: For 28 years, people visited his remains, which were buried in a chapel beneath the cathedral in San Francisco. When they visited, people would often ask Vladyka John to pray for them. His spiritual children continued writing him letters, even after his death, delivering them near his relics in the San Francisco cathedral. Thousands of letters arrived there, asking for his prayers and his advice.

One old lady at the cathedral was very annoyed about this, and she spoke out, saying that “All we have to do is pray to our dear saints. We don’t have to deliver actual letters.” She thought it was ridiculous, and asked that the priests at the cathedral stop allowing such nonsense. That night she had a dream—or maybe a vision—where Vladyka came to her and yelled at her. He was mad! He told her to leave them alone, that he still reads every letter and answers them in his way. She went back to the cathedral in tears and apologized, and the cathedral continues to allow pilgrims to bring letters for the saint and to leave them with his body.

In 1993, Vladyka John’s relics were discovered to be incorrupt: they did not decay like a body usually does. This sign, combined with his very holy life, and the miracles God has performed in response to his prayers, both during his life and since his repose, were evidence enough for him to be recognized as a saint of the holy Orthodox Church. He was glorified on July 2, 1994.

Today his relics are housed in a special glass shrine in the cathedral, and there’s a slot below where the faithful can slip letters to him. To this day, many miracles are still happening in response to his holy prayers. St. John Maximovitch, please pray for us and for our salvation.

Now, here are some questions for you to talk about. St. John was born in Russia, then moved to Yugoslavia for safety when the Communists took over Russia. Where was he sent when he became a bishop, and what did he do there?

Ms. Bjeletich: Bishop John was sent first to Shanghai, to look after the many Russians who had fled the Soviets in Russia and ended up in China. While he was there, he tenderly cared for his flock, he led the completion of a beautiful cathedral there, and improved religious education in the Church. He also started an orphanage for the many abandoned and unwanted children he found. He tenderly cared for the children and prayed for many people who were sick.

Ms. Wenger: When China became Communist, Bishop John had to leave his new home again. Where did he go this time, and what was it like where he went?

Ms. Bjeletich: Vladyka John and his flock had to leave China, but they found refuge on an island in the Philippines, where they were allowed to live in a refugee camp. They brought all the orphans Vladyka had gathered, too. The refugee camp was on an island that was always being hit by typhoons, which are like hurricanes, but Vladyka would walk around the refugee camp every night, praying and blessing the camp, and for two years and three months not a single typhoon came to that island.

Ms. Wenger: Vladyka John was sent from the Philippines to Western Europe and then finally to San Francisco, California, in the United States, where he lived until he departed this life in 1966. What special thing happened in 1993?

Ms. Bjeletich: In 1993, Vladyka John’s relics were discovered to be incorrupt. This sign, combined with his very holy life, and the miracles God has performed through his prayers, were evidence enough for him to be recognized as a saint of the holy Orthodox Church. He was glorified on July 2, 1994.

Ms. Wenger: Now, here’s something else your family could talk about. St. John Maximovitch lived long before many of us, so we didn’t get to meet him in this life, but he still cares about us and prays for us. Occasionally, God even allows people to still see St. John working in his cathedral in San Francisco, and many people pray and ask for his prayers. But, as we heard in this episode, some people also write a letter to him, to ask him to pray. Even today, if you send him a letter, the kind people of his parish will place it with him so that he can read it and pray for your specific needs.

I have done this and I have felt the difference that his prayers make in my own life and in the lives of my loved ones. Maybe you want to do this, too. Talk with your family about what or whom you would like St. John to pray about. You can pray right away and ask for his prayers, but if your family decides to actually write to him, address your letter to:

St. John Maximovitch
Holy Virgin Cathedral, “Joy of All Who Sorrow”
6210 Geary Boulevard
San Francisco, CA 94121 USA