The Catalog of Good Deeds

Our father among the saints, Vukašin Mandrapa of Klepci, was a Serbian Orthodox Christian from Herzegovina who was martyred by fascists during World War II for refusing to acknowledge the local nazi leader Ante Pavelic.

Little is known about the life of Saint Vukasin. What is known about him is from the event resulting in his martyrdom, revealed in 1946. Vukasin was born in the village of Klepci, in Herzegovina, at the turn of the twentieth century. At the beginning of World War II, members of the Croatian fascist Ustašas arrested him and transported him, together with other Serbs of that region, into the notorious concentration camp of Jasenovac (the number of victims at this camp have been estimated between 80,000 and 800,000). During the reign of Ante Pavelic in Croatia (1941-5), Ustašas put up a death camp near the town Jasenovac, Croatia. It was practically the mirror-image of Auschwitz, Treblinka etc., except for the fact that a large number of victims were ethnic Serbs. The extermination with Zyklon B was employed at the later stage. Nevertheless, Jasenovac was one of the most cruel death-camps ever, ravaged by random terror, tortures and mass slayings.

Wikipedia relates the following: On the night of 29 August 1942, prison guards made bets among themselves as to who could slaughter the largest number of inmates. One of the guards, Petar Brzica, boasted that he had cut the throats of about 1,360 new arrivals. Other participants who confessed to participating in the bet included Ante Zrinušić, who killed some 600 inmates, and Mile Friganović, who gave a detailed and consistent report of the incident. Friganović admitted to having killed some 1,100 inmates. He specifically recounted his torture of an old man named Vukasin; he attempted to compel the man to bless Ante Pavelić, which the old man refused to do, even after Friganović had cut off his ears, nose and tongue after each refusal. Ultimately, he cut out the old man’s eyes, tore out his heart, and slashed his throat. This incident was witnessed by Dr. Nikola Nikolić.

Below is the story from the perspective of above mentioned guard Mile Friganović, during his later testimony on court (as stated by Wikipedia):

Franciscan Pero Brzica, Ante Zrinusic, Sipka and I waged a bet on who would slaughter more prisoners that night. The killing started and already after an hour I slaughtered much more than they did. […] And already after a few hours I slaughtered 1,100 people, while the others only managed to kill 300 to 400 each. […] I noticed an elderly peasant standing and peacefully and calmly watching me slaughter my victims and them dying in the greatest pain. That look of his shook me: in the midst of the greatest ecstasy I suddenly froze and for some time couldn’t make a single move. And then I walked up to him and found out that he was some Vukasin [Mandrapa] from the village of Klepci near Capljina whose whole family had been killed, and who was sent to Jasenovac after having worked in the forests. He spoke this with incomprehensible peace which affected me more than the terrible cries around us. All at once I felt the wish to disrupt his peace with the most brutal torturing and, through his suffering, to restore my ecstasy and continue to enjoy the inflicting of pain.

In his personal confession to physician Nedo Zets, Friganović revealed the details he remembered of Vukašin’s death, which finally drove him to an unbearable feeling of guilt and consequently to madness.

Old Vukasin, by his conduct and the words he put to his executioner, gave a brilliant example of a Christian sacrifice, making him a symbol of overall Serbian suffering in Jasenovac and a Holy Martyr of the Orthodox Church.

At the regular session of the Holy Assembly of Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church in 1998, Vukašin Mandrapa, from the Klepci village, was entered into the List of Names of the Serbian Orthodox Church as a martyr. His feast day is May 16.

Source: http://pemptousia.com/2014/05/new-martyr-vukasin-of-klepci/

The Surety of Sinners (Споручница грешных) Icon of the Theotokos is a Russian image which was revealed as wonder-working during the middle of the 19th century. It gets it name from the inscription found on the icon:

“I am the Surety of sinners for My Son Who has entrusted me to hear them, and those who bring me the joy of hearing them will receive eternal joy through me.”

The word Sporuchnitsa (Споручница), translated as “surety”, can also be translated as “pledge” or even as “intercession”. The pledge is not only shown in the inscription but also in the way Jesus Christ holds His mother’s hand, a sign of one giving a pledge for the other.

The origins of the icon are unclear, but the style of the icon (both Mother and Child are crowned; 12 stars around the Theotokos) suggest either the Ukraine or Belarus, both places where Western religious art influenced iconographers. Despite this, the basis for the icon is in a much more ancient source, the Akathist to the Protection of the Theotokos, in which there is the line: “Rejoice, You Who offer Your hands in surety for us to God.”

This icon was first glorified by miracles in 1848 at the St Nicholas Odrino men’s monastery. The icon was in an old chapel beyond the monastery gates, and stood between two other ancient icons. Because it was so faded and covered with dust, it was impossible to read the inscription. It was revealed to many of the people in dreams that the icon was endowed with miraculous power. They solemnly brought the icon into the church. Believers began to flock to it to pray for the healing of their sorrows and sicknesses. The first to receive healing was a crippled child, whose mother, wife of a merchant named Pochepyn, prayed fervently before the icon in 1844. The icon was glorified during a cholera epidemic, when many people fell deathly ill, and were restored to health after praying before the icon.

With the revelation of the icon as wonderworking, many copies of the Surety of Sinners were made, some of which themselves were glorified by God with miracles. As well as the Odrino monastery, there are miracle-working icons in Moscow and Robensk.

Source: https://iconreader.wordpress.com/2011/03/19/surety-of-sinners-icon/

As Orthodox parents, our most basic task is to bring our children to a sense of the truth, of the real-ness, of God. This is not the same thing as head-knowledge about God; it is a personal experience, through prayer, of the reality of God in our lives.

When we bring our children to God through prayer, we are performing a truly God-pleasing act, as He Himself said: Suffer the little children to come unto me…

St. John of Kronstadt said that the most wonderful moments of our lives are those we spend in prayer, for “only then do we truly live.” And this is because prayer brings “Christ into your heart, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, and will thus strengthen your soul against any evil.”

May the following incident from the life of Abbot Theodosius of Optina, wherein a holy bishop instructs children on the subject of prayer, serve as an example and inspiration to Orthodox parents of the last times!

***

One episode from our life in the town of Atkarsk was especially engraved on my memory, leaving an indelible trace on my whole life. This episode was bound up with a visit to Atkarsk by His Eminence James, Bishop of Saratov and later Archbishop of Novgorod.

On a tour of his diocese, the Bishop visited Atkarsk and served the Divine Liturgy in the cathedral. He was a highly educated man and he always delivered his sermons to the people without the help of notes, extemporaneously, for which reason he left no trace in the literature of church sermons. The people loved His Eminence and listened to his sermons with great reverence. The simplicity and heartfelt warmth of his sermons were extraordineary, and so clowe were these qualities to the hearts of the people, and so deeply did they penetrate, that even I, a boy of eleven at the time, have clearly retained in my memory one of these talks of his which, in passing, I wish now to record in my memoirs.

The people considered His Eminence to be a saint. And so it was that this holy man, after celebrating the Divine Liturgy in the Atkarsk cathedral, came out onto the amvon in his hierarch’s mantle, surveyed with his kind and penetrating gaze those standing before him, and, noticing in their midst some children, amongst whom was I myself, said: “Children, come closer up to me!”

Several of us came forward, and I stood in the very front. I stood before the very face of the Bishop and he, as if addressing me personally, began to speak.

“I wish, children, to talk to you about prayer. Do you know how to train yourself to pray? First, you must pray just a little, but as often as possible. Prayer is like a spark: in time it can turn into a great flame, but in order to kindle this flame you must have untiring zeal, and you must also have time and skill. Let us take for example two pieces of coal: one is red-hot, and the other cold. Try to kindle the cold one with the other. What must you do? You must put the cold one next to the red-hot one. But simply to place them together is not enough to make the cold piece of coal red-hot, unless you constantly and gently blow on the burning piece. If you blow to hard, sparks will fly out but the cold piece will not begin to burn, and your efforts will be in vain. But if you blow on the burning coal constantly and not to hard, then soon your entire piece of coal which was placed next to it will become itself red-hot. Then not only will these two pieces burn, but if you separate them one from the other a certain distance, everything that you place between them will also catch, and then it can spread into a whole sea of flame.

“But just think how much time is needed to light a stove of wet wood or to ignite and fan a damp piece of coal – how much time, effort, patience and, most of all, perseverance! And so, I would say to you my children: prayer is a fire; and even more I say: it is a burning coal, while our hearts are dead coals. For this reason we must pray every day. This is the same as placing the dead coal of our hearts next to the burning coal of prayer and blowing on it a little at a time. Believe me, children, if you listen to me and pray just a little every day, but consistently, then your hearts will become ignited by the love of the divine flame. But take care not to pray simply in moments of inspiration – do not just scatter sparks from the burning coal of prayer. Remember that after such outbursts laziness follows, and it is not by sparks that you will ignite your hearts.

“Begin this way: at first make three prostrations with these words: ‘Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner,’ and again a prostration; ‘All Saints, pray for me a sinner,’ and again a prostration; and let that be enough for you. And the next day again repeat this without fail. Continue in this way day by day, and then you will notice, my children, that in the beginning you will be overcome by laziness like some heavy burden. But if you persist in making these three prostrations, later you will see that instead of three you will want to make more, and then prayer itself will demand an increase in the number of prostrations. This will mean that already the coal of the heart has begun to burn by the power of faith and has become ignited with love towards God and that the constancy of your efforts has begun to bear fruit, from which comes the thirst for more prayer.

“Test my words in action, children, and you will see for yourselves that it is just as I have told you. Run to God as to your own mother. He is good and all-knowing; He loves us as a Mother loves her own children. If you ask Him, He will surely hear you and will fulfil your request, if only it is not contrary to His holy will. He Himself said “Ask and it shall be given you” – and so run to Him with boldness with all your needs: on yur way to school get down on your knees but in such a way that only God sees you, and ask Him to enlighten your mind and memory, and you will see that you will be able to learn your lessons more quickly and more easily than others or than you yourself when you were not turning to God for this. Do this always before you begin anything. Pray, children, pray more often. Forgive those who offend you, and the God of peace will be with you always. Every evening and every day, repent before the Lord for whatever sins you have committed, and implore His goodness and try not to sin in this way any more; and if somehow you fall again into sin, again straightway repent and say: ‘Lord, I have sinned; have mercy on me and help me to change my ways.’ And He will forgive you and help you to change. Pray more often to God, children, and He will save you.”

This teaching so impressed itself on my memory that although already so many years have passed, I am recording it as if reading it from a book.

When the Bishop finished speaking I took his blessing, and ever since then, from the evening of that ever-memorable day, I begin daily to make three prostrations: to the Lord Jesus, the Mother of God, and to all the Saints.

Source: http://stvladimirs.ca/children-and-prayer/

Many people come to the Rehabilitation Center of St Elisabeth Convent in order to conquer their addictions. There are no locks or medical personnel — the usual attributes of rehabilitation centers — here but there is a church in honour of the Inexhaustible Chalice icon of the Mother of God, a farm, and a number of workshops. All the residents are treated as brothers, and the medicines used most often are repentance and the willingness to follow the commandments of one's conscience, Communion, prayer, and labour.

The Men's Rehabilitation Center is located near v. Lysaja Hara. I arrived here by bus in the morning. First of all, I saw some brothers queuing in front of a sister who was anointing them with holy oil. The sister's name was Helena, as it turned out. I took my place in the queue, approached the sister, and told her about my journalist's assignment.

— You'd better visit us in the evening, when we have an Akathist to the Inexhaustible Chalice icon of the Mother of God. The brothers read it together every Tuesday, — Sister Helena suggested.

Given that it was the beginning of a workday, I asked her to show me around the Center.

— Everyone who came here to stay are real heroes of faith, — Sister Helena tells me as we are walking towards the farm. — I can't think of any other name to describe them. A person who comes here by chance won't stay here even for a single day, or even for a single minute. These brothers are God's people whom the Lord brought and gathered here. They realise their sinfulness and their weaknesses and do their best to get saved. Certainly, they manage to do so with varying levels of success but I believe that thanks to God's mercy, everything will be fine. Father Andrew Lemeshonok, who is our spiritual father, prays for us, too.

I ask Sister Helena whether she has a personal story related to the Inexhaustible Chalice icon. It turns out that she does:

— My husband used to drink heavily but when I turned to the faith he started drinking even heavier and became more ill-tempered. He used to say, "If only you left for your Convent for good, at last! If only you let me free from your presence so that I could live as I please." I was praying to God and asking Him to settle down that situation and to transform my husband. I kept coming to the Convent and reading the Akathist to the Inexhaustible Chalice icon. I prayed to God while we lived together, and I continue to pray even now. I have been praying for thirty years now… He almost doesn't drink any longer because he has ended up in a difficult situation. He doesn't have a car or drinking buddies. He has become humbler. I'm sure that it was thanks to the Lord's power and our prayer. God never misses anything; His power is always active…

Finally, we are close to the farm. The brothers see that I take pictures of them, and they don't like it. I ask several men who are sitting at the door of the farm to share their stories but the majority of them leave immediately. No one wants to talk about their problems, past and present.

The remaining two men are Brother George and his friend. Brother George says that community and prayer are his ways of coping with the addiction. His friend nods approvingly. Finally, the brothers leave to do their jobs, and Sister Helena and I return to the repair shop. I am introduced to Brother Yury. He shows me the agricultural tools that he made with his colleague almost from metal scraps, and shares his testimony:

— I work in the garage. I used to work in a sawmill shop, then as an agronomist, then as a locksmith. When Kuzmich (the brothers have a habit of referring to each other by patronymics, not given names) moved closer to the Convent to do another job, I took his position here.

I have a disabled friend. We fought in Afghanistan together. I gave him an icon of the Mother of God the Inexhaustible Chalice with the Akathist. I had found this paper icon while I had still been working in the sawmill shop, so I had made a frame for it and had it put under a glass cover. When I came to visit my friend again after a while, I learned that he had quit drinking after receiving my gift. That's a miracle!

When I lived with my wife, I had terrible days from time to time… I would often travel to Moscow to do business. I assembled ventilation systems. It's a profitable business, I dare say. One day we finished work, and my boss told me to stay at home and wait for a new order. I had pockets full of money, so I went on a drinking spree… To be honest, I don't remember what was going on but someone called the police…

I met a white sister from St Elisabeth Convent and told her about it. She said, "If you go back to Moscow, you will be lost. Come to our Rehabilitation Center instead." That was how I found myself here. I'm happy, I have to admit! Because if I hadn't come to the rehab, I would've gotten jailed or just be dead now. I've spent almost five years here, not because I'm a holy man. I go out sometimes, I can drink some alcohol there but I'm always totally sober by the time I come back because I have to check in with the supervisors. After I report to them, I can continue to work. I don't drink as much as I used to five years ago. We go to the Akathist to the Inexhaustible Chalice icon every Tuesday, and a Divine Liturgy every Wednesday. That's the normal way of life. I praise God for this place! I'm truly blessed.

I saw a small pond, a chapel, and two men in the backyard of the repair shop. The men were fishing in this picturesque place. One of them, Brother Alexey, says that they have a day off today. He says that he works "with cows".

— We have cows, calves, and bulls, — he says. — It's hard work: we get up early and work till eight or nine o'clock in the evening. We do everything with our own hands. We go to church, pray and read the Psalter for two or three hours at a time! It's hard for me but I humble myself down. God gives me everything! Let's say someone invites me to drink but I reply that it's a devil's temptation and I don't need it. God has healed me, and I don't drink any longer. Lots of those who stay here do not drink alcohol and even quit smoking.

I turned to the Lord our God when I was in prison. There are churches and believers in prison, too. I became Orthodox and was baptised in 1994.

You know, it's all too easy to slip and fall into a muddy puddle. God saves and heals us. I've spent more than a year in the Rehabilitation Center. Father Andrew blessed me. I came to him in winter and fell on my knees. He said, "Get up! Will you go to the Rehab?" I responded, "Yes, I will."

During a communion, I go to the Chalice and find relief, as if I am born again…

May new brothers come to us! The Lord will empower them to get healed. God said, "I will release you and you will be really free." The Lord will see to it. We must obey him and be humble.

The Rehabilitation Center where most brothers stay is half a mile from the farm. It is surrounded by a forest. I suggested to Brother Vladimir, whom I met there, to take a walk around the rehab, relax, and talk. By the way, Brother Vladimir speaks in a soft and quiet voice, like a monk.

— It was here in the rehab that I came to realise that the Lord and his Mother love me and that I need nothing else. It was here that I quit drinking and smoking. Whatever I ask from the Mother of God and Jesus Christ, they give it to me. They help us and caress us so much! Glory to God for everything! I can only enjoy my life!

I see people willing to be closer to God and willing to become novices. I don't want to go back into the world, either. I would like to devote my life to God. I hope that there will be a monastery here. Metropolitan Pavel visited our Rehabilitation Center and told us that there would be a monastery here sometime…

Brother Alexander works in the Candle Workshop. He used to stay in the Rehabilitation Center but he lives in Minsk now. We arrived at the rehab in the same bus together. He is a kind-hearted, smiling, and easy-going person. He has gone through many hardships and cherishes every moment of his life.

— I took drugs for more than two decades. I was in coma for the first time when I was 13. I'm 37 now. I don't do drugs for two years. There was a point when I realised that I didn't have a normal way of dealing with my parents or with my family. I just couldn't see the way out. I was desperate all the time. I made countless attempts to take my life! To be honest, I was too tired of living…

I learned about this Rehabilitation Center from a friend. I came to see Father Andrew who blessed me to go here as soon as he saw me. I spent here more than a year and I stay in the world for the last eight months.

I've started my life from scratch. I just changed everything and did my best to forget my past. People go around looking for euphoria, for an outburst of emotions, while in fact, the best emotion is the feeling that you're alive! You can get a whole lot more from it. Think of what your life has given to you!

I spent a long time kneeling in front of the Inexhaustible Chalice icon and praying in all sincerity… I wish I changed my life earlier. I used to have a wife and three kids but I rarely see them now: my wife can't forgive me for my past offences.

Sometimes, I'm haunted by my thoughts but I know that even if I do it once, I'll keep doing it dozens of times. I know that if I shoot the drug, I'll lose the most valuable thing there is: the grace of God. I'll die. Do you know what a death of a junkie is like? It's hell. It's worse than anything! I've endured all that horror, and it's really terrible. That's why I would like to advise everyone against drugs: don't even try them!

Few people use drugs just for the sake of curiosity. Most people are looking for an artificial euphoria when they run into some real world problems. You can easily skip the drug and talk with your mum and have fun with your friends instead. You can go to church, take communion, and talk with people — all this while being sober and not having to find a way to get high. You can enjoy your life without drugs!

The Rehabilitation Center accepted me just as I was. I'm grateful to all brothers and nuns. Thanks to all those folks, the Lord really changed me. At least, He allowed me to see that I should be afraid of not receiving his forgiveness. Repentance in the last minute, like that of the good thief on the cross, is not for me… I really fear for my life, I don't want to end my life in an unknown place and to spend eternity in a mess similar to the one I used to live in here on earth…

It was a warm and sunny day in May. I was listening to the stories of all those people. It was hard to fathom the difficulties they had had to face in the course of their lives! However, I did not notice the burden of their past errors on their faces. I saw their smiling faces and thought, "You see, for them spring is not just a time of the year; it dwells in their souls, too! They did not see any escape but today, they testify how faith, prayer, and other people have helped them to find it."

I would like everyone who is distressed now to have this spring feeling after reading this text.

May 18, 2018

St. Elisabeth Convent

The Holy Confessor John the Russian was born in Little Russia around 1690, and was raised in piety and love for the Church of God. Upon attaining the age of maturity he was called to military service, and he served as a simple soldier in the army of Peter I and took part in the Russo-Turkish War. During the Prutsk Campaign of 1711 he and other soldiers were captured by the Tatars, who handed him over to the commander of the Turkish cavalry. He took his Russian captive home with him to Asia Minor, to the village of Prokopion.

The Turks tried to convert the Christian soldiers to the Moslem faith with threats and flattery, but those who resisted were beaten and tortured. Some, alas, denied Christ and became Moslems, hoping to improve their lot. Saint John was not swayed by the promise of earthly delights, and he bravely endured the humiliation and beatings.

His master tortured him often in the hope that his slave would accept Islam. Saint John resolutely resisted the will of his master saying, “You cannot turn me from my holy Faith by threats, nor with promises of riches and pleasures. I will obey your orders willingly, if you will leave me free to follow my religion. I would rather surrender my head to you than to change my faith. I was born a Christian, and I shall die a Christian.”

Saint John’s bold words and firm faith, as well as his humility and meekness, finally softened the fierce heart of his master. He left John in peace, and no longer tried to make him renounce Christianity. The saint lived in the stable and took care of his master’s animals, rejoicing because his bed was a manger such as the one in which the Savior was born.

From morning until late evening the saint served his Turkish master, fulfilling all his commands. He performed his duties in the winter cold and summer heat, half naked and barefoot. Other slaves frequently mocked him, seeing his zeal. Saint John never became angry with them, but on the contrary, he helped them when he could, and comforted them in their misfortune.

The saint’s kindness and gentle nature had its effect on the souls of both the master and the slaves. The Agha and his wife came to love him, and offered him a small room near the hayloft. Saint John did not accept it, preferring to remain in the stable with the animals. Here he slept on the hay, covered only by an old coat. So the stable became his hermitage, where he prayed and chanted Psalms.

Saint John brought a blessing to his master simply by living in his household. The cavalry officer became rich, and was soon one of the most powerful men in Prokopion. He knew very well why his home had been blessed, and he did not hesitate to tell others.

Sometimes Saint John left the stable at night and went to the church of the Great Martyr George, where he kept vigil in the narthex. On Saturdays and Feast days, he received the Holy Mysteries of Christ.

During this time Saint John continued to serve his master as before, and despite his own poverty, he always helped the needy and the sick, and shared his meager food with them.

One day, the officer left Prokopion and went to Mecca on pilgrimage. A few days later, his wife gave a banquet and invited her husband’s friends and relatives, asking them to pray for her husband’s safe return. Saint John served at the table, and he put down a dish of pilaf, his master’s favorite food. The hostess said, “How much pleasure your master would have if he could be here to eat this pilaf with us.” Saint John asked for a dish of pilaf, saying that he would send it to his master in Mecca. The guests laughed when they heard his words. The mistress, however, ordered the cook to give him a dish of pilaf, thinking he would eat it himself, or give it to some poor family.

Taking the dish, Saint John went into the stable and prayed that God would send it to his master. He had no doubt that God would send the pilaf to his master in a supernatual manner. The plate disappeared before his eyes, and he went into the house to tell his mistress that he had sent the pilaf to his master.

After some time, the master returned home with the copper plate which had held the pilaf. He told his household that on a certain day (the very day of the banquet), he returned from the mosque to the home where he was staying. Although the room was locked, he found a plate of steaming pilaf on the table. Unable to explain who had brought the food, or how anyone could enter the locked room, the officer examined the plate. To his amazement, he saw his own name engraved on the copper plate. In spite of his confusion, he ate the meal with great relish.

When the officer’s family heard this story, they marveled. His wife told him of how John had asked for a plate of pilaf to send to his master in Mecca, and how they all laughed when John came back and said that it had been sent. Now they saw that what the saint had said was true (Compare the story of Habakkuk, who miraculously brought a dish of pottage to Daniel in the lions’ den [Dan. 14:33-39], in the Septuagint).

Toward the end of his difficult life Saint John fell ill, and sensed the nearness of his end. He summoned the priest so that he could receive Holy Communion. The priest, fearing to go to the residence of the Turkish commander openly with the Holy Gifts, enclosed the life-giving Mysteries in an apple and brought them to Saint John.

Saint John glorified the Lord, received the Body and Blood of Christ, and then reposed. The holy Confessor John the Russian went to the Lord Whom he loved on May 27, 1730. When they reported to the master that his servant John had died, he summoned the priests and gave them the body of Saint John for Christian burial. Almost all the Christian inhabitants of Prokopion came to the funeral, and they accompanied the body of the saint to the Christian cemetery.

Three and a half years later the priest was miraculously informed in a dream that the relics of Saint John had remained incorrupt. Soon the relics of the saint were transferred to the church of the holy Great Martyr George and placed in a special reliquary. The new saint of God began to be glorified by countless miracles of grace, accounts of which spread to the remote cities and villages. Christian believers from various places came to Prokopion to venerate the holy relics of Saint John the Russian and they received healing through his prayers. The new saint came to be venerated not only by Orthodox Christians, but also by Armenians, and even Turks, who prayed to the Russian saint, “Servant of God, in your mercy, do not disdain us.”

In the year 1881 a portion of the relics of Saint John were transferred to the Russian monastery of the holy Great Martyr Panteleimon by the monks of Mount Athos, after they were miraculously saved by the saint during a dangerous journey.

Construction of a new church was begun in 1886, through the contributions of the monastery and the inhabitants of Prokopion. This was necessary because the church of the holy Great Martyr George, where the relics of Saint John were enshrined, had fallen into disrepair.

On August 15, 1898 the new church dedicated to Saint John the Russian was consecrated by the Metropolitan John of Caesarea, with the blessing of the Ecumenical Patriarch Constantine V.

In 1924, an exchange of the populations of Greece and Turkey took place. Many Moslems moved out of Greece, and many Christians moved out of Turkey. The inhabitants of Prokopion, when they moved to the island of Euboia, took with them part of the relics of Saint John the Russian.

For several decades the relics were in the church of Saints Constantine and Helen at New Prokopion on Euboia, and in 1951 they were transferred into a new church dedicated to Saint John the Russian. Thousands of pilgrims flocked here from all the corners of Greece, particularly on his Feast, May 27. Saint John the Russian is widely venerated on Mount Athos, particularly in the Russian monastery of Saint Panteleimon.

Saint John’s help is sought by travelers, and by those transporting things.

Source: https://oca.org/saints/lives/2018/05/27/101545-st-john-the-russian-and-confessor-whose-relics-are-on-the-island

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A Short Life Story of New Martyr Vukasin of Klepci

Iconographic Analysis: Surety of Sinners

Bringing Children to God through Prayer

Patron Saint's Day at the Men's Rehabilitation Center of St. Elisabeth Convent

Having the Grace of the Holy Spirit

The Story of the Relics of St. John the Russian and Confessor

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