John the Russian

Saint John the Russian
Icon of St. John the Russian in Prokopi, Euboea, Greece, where lies his body
Pious, Confessor of the Faith
Born	1690 Cossack Hetmanate (modern Ukraine)
Died	June 9, 1730 Ürgüp, Turkey
Venerated in	Eastern Orthodoxy
Major shrine	Church of Saint John the Russian in Prokopi, Euboea, Greece
Feast	June 9/May 27

Saint John the Russian (Ukrainian: Йоан Руський, Russian: Иоанн Русский) (1690, Cossack Hetmanate (modern Ukraine) – May 27 (N.S. June 9), 1730) is one of the most renowned saints in the Greek Orthodox Church. Being a prisoner of war and a slave to a Turkish Agha, he became famous and respected even by his Muslim master for his humility, steadiness in faith and benevolence. His holy relics are undecayed and wonder-working; there are traditions that this saint particularly helps sick children and those who suffer from cancer.

St John the Russian was born approximately in 1690 in Ukraine. Having come of age, he was recruited to the army of Peter the Great and took part in the Russo-Turkish War (1710–1711). During the war he was captured prisoner and sold to slavery to the head of Turkish cavalry.

The saint refused to adopt Islam and was humiliated and tormented for that by the Turks, who called him a kafir, which means "unbeliever". But as the time went by, the mockery had stopped due to saint's steadiness in faith, humility and diligence, and saint John became respected by his master and the household. He worked as a groom and lived in the stables. Other slaves mocked him for the zeal he was working with, but the pious man took no offence, trying to help them in their needs and comforting them when needed. For his sincere kind-heartedness, the saint had earned love and trust of the Agha who proposed him to live as a free man, in separate house. But he refused, saying: "My patron is Lord, and no one is above Him. He predestined me to live as a slave in a foreign land; seems, it must be so for my salvation".

In the daytime John worked and prayed, keeping strict fast, and when the night came, he used to secretly go to the cave-church of St. George, where he said the prayers of All-Night Vigil. Every Saturday he used to take the Holy Communion.