Saint John the Russian,the New Confessor of Prokopion and Evia
Commemorated on May 27
by Photios Kontoglou
Whose Venerable Relics Repose in New Prokopion on the Greek Island of Evvia
The righteous John was born in a village in southern Russia, of pious Orthodox parents, around 1690, during the reign of Peter the Great.John was taken prisoner by Tartars along with thousands of other Russians. The Tartars sold him to a Muslim cavalry officer who lived in Prokopion (modern-day Ürgüp) in Asia Minor, near Caesarea of Cappadocia, and this Aga carried John to his village.
John would even silently chant psalms while he followed the horse of his master as hostler when the master rode in the country. . The holy stable boy – besides the prayers and fasting which he carried on day and night, winter and summer, inside that stable while lying upon the dung like another Job – would go at night and keep vigil in the narthex of the Chapel of Saint George, which was built in the hollow of a rock near the house of his master. John would go there secretly at night, and every Saturday he partook of the immaculate Mysteries. Greek Orthodox clergy were living in Prokopion serving the local native Greek population as well as the Russian slaves of the Turks. The Lord, who examines the hearts and the reins, looked upon his faithful slave and caused John’s fellow slaves and other believers who had previously done so to cease mocking and insulting him…
After the Aga had become wealthy, he determined to go on the annual pilgrimage to Mecca to give thanks to God for his blessings, which he actually received through the intercessions of Saint John and not from any devotion to the Islamic religion, and to offer sacrifice for his sins. The Hadj, the annual pilgrimage to Mecca, is commanded of Muslims to make at least once in their lifetime. After leaving Prokopion, and enduring the hardships suffered in those times by pilgrims, he arrived at the holy city of the Muslims. Meanwhile, some days after his departure, the Aga’s wife gave a banquet, at which she invited her husband’s relatives and friends to rejoice and to pray that he might return safe from his journey. Blessed John served at table. Pilaf, a dish favored by the Aga, was placed on the table. Then the mistress remembered her hus-band and exclaimed to John, “How much pleasure your master would have if he were here now and could eat this pilaf with us!” John then asked for a plate of the pilaf, saying that he would send it to his master in Mecca. Upon hearing these words, the guests laughed. The mistress told the cook to give John a plate of the food, thinking that he would either eat it himself or carry it to some poor 
Christian family as was his custom. Taking the dish, the saint went to the stable where he knelt and prayed from the depths of his heart that almighty God would send the food to his master in whatever manner he might choose. In his simplicity the blessed one had faith that the Lord would hearken to his prayer and that the food would arrive in Mecca by supernatural means. He believed “without doubting,” according to the word of the Lord that God would perform this miracle. As the great ascetic Saint Isaac the Syrian writes, “These supernatural things will occur for those who are simple in mind and fervent in the hope.” Indeed the plate of food vanished from before John’s eyes. Then the holy one returned to the dining room and told his mistress that he had sent the pilaf to his master.
“Some time later the Aga returned from Mecca, and to the amazement of his household brought with him the very copper plate that had held the food. Only blessed John was not surprised. The Aga told his household, “On that exact day (that is, on the day of his wife’s banquet in Prokopion) as I was returning from the Great Mosque to the house where I stayed, I found this plate filled with pilaf on the table in a room that I had locked. I stood pondering who could have brought it. Above all, I could not understand how the door which I had locked well had been opened. Not knowing how to explain this mystery, I examined the plate of steaming pilaf. I saw with amazement that my name was engraved in the copper just as all such vessels in our house. Despite confusion from that unexplainable circumstance, I sat down and ate the pilaf with great relish. Observe the plate which I have brought back. It is truly ours. For the sake of Allah, I do not understand how it came all the way to Mecca, or who brought it.”
When the Aga’s household heard this, they marveled. The wife told how John had asked for the plate saying that he would send it to Mecca, and how they had laughed to hear him say that he had sent it. Behold, what he had said was true! This miracle was soon made known to the whole village and surrounding area, and from now on John was considered righteous and beloved of God. No one any longer dared to bother the holy one but rather looked upon him with fear and reverence. His master and his master’s wife esteemed him all the more, and entreated him again to leave the stable and occupy a more comfortable dwelling. Even so, John refused to change his residence and continued to live as an ascetic, laboring as before to care for the animals and eagerly obeying the commands of his master. Saint John spent his nights in prayer and psalmody, according to the word of the Lord who says, “Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s, and unto God the things which are God’s.”…
John approached the end of his life after several years of fasting, prayer, and sleeping on the ground. .. The date of his falling asleep was May 27, 1730.In this manner, then, reposed Saint John the Russian, a new Job who passed his life upon a dung heap, a second Lazarus who endured the mockings of his fellow servants and whose wounds his master’s dogs licked.
John was about forty years old at the time of his repose. Because he was beloved by God, the Lord brought John quickly near his throne that he might suffer no more torment in this sinful world, and that he might rejoice in the tents of the righteous where there is neither pain, nor sorrow, nor sighing, but the untroubled sound of those that keep festival and cry unceasingly, “O Lord, glory to thee!” …In Jerusalem on high, the dwelling of the First-born where there are found the blessed souls of the saints who endured privation in this world as to pass through “the narrow and afflicted way that leadeth unto life,” there rejoices also the humble John whom we celebrate today, brother to animals, new Job, and second Lazarus.
In the other life, those who grieved the saint and those who indulged their passions are groaning. Behold what the Prophet King Solomon says concerning the righteous man and his persecutors, when they open their eyes after death, then shall the righteous man stand in great boldness before the face of such as have afflicted him, and made no account of his labors. When they see it, they shall be troubled with terrible fear, and shall be amazed at the strangeness of his salvation, so far beyond all that they looked for…. (Based on a Life of the Saint by Photios Kontoglou.)
Troparion, in Tone IV
He that hath called thee from earth unto the heavenly abodes doth even after thy death keep thy body unharmed, O righteous one; for thou wast carried off as a prisoner into Asia wherein also, O John, thou didst win Christ as thy friend. Wherefore do thou beseech him that our souls be saved.
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