The Lives of the Saints have, after the Scriptures, always been the favourite reading of Orthodox Christians. They provide not only a catechism in terms of the spiritual and moral truths of the Faith, but also a solid education in terms of history and geography. They take us not only through the liturgical year, but also through Christian geography and history, through space and time - and, above all, beyond space and time.
Two of the most loved of all the saints share the same name. They are the Holy Prophet, Forerunner and Baptist John, ‘the greatest of those born among women’, and the Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian (also known as John the Divine), ‘whom our Lord loved’. In Hebrew their shared name, John, means ‘God is gracious’. Like other popular saints, Orthodox Christians began to take on this name and, in turn, many of them became saints. The result is that there are hundreds of St Johns in the Church calendar. Possibly, if we took into account all the new martyrs of Greece, Russia and Serbia who were called John, we would find as many St Johns as there are days in the year. Their feats stretch from the first century to the twentieth century, from the south of Italy to the north of Russia, from Armenia to Aragon, from the woods of Yorkshire to the streets of Shanghai, from Autun in France to Tobolsk in Siberia, from Sicily to Lithuania, from the deserts of Egypt to San Francisco.
As for the forms of the name John (or Jon), we have Ioannis in Greek, Johannes in Latin, Evan in Welsh, Jovan in Serb, Ivan in Russian, Giovanni in Italian, Juan in Spanish, Jean in French, Johann (and Hans) in German, Yann in Breton, Ian and Iain in Gaelic, Jan in Dutch and Polish and Sean in Irish, as well as many diminiutive forms like Jack and Johnny in England or Jock in Scotland. We also find female forms, Joanna, Joan, Jane, Janice, Janis, Jenny, Jean, Janet, Jessie, Jintie, Shona, Sheena, Sinead and Siobhan (in Gaelic) and Juanita (in Spanish).
Below we list some one hundred and thirty St Johns from the Church calendar, perhaps a third of the actual total so far revealed to us, and give a few short details of each one:
John the Faster - Sept 2
+ 595. A goldsmith by profession, he was ordained priest for his virtues. He was overawed when chosen Patriarch, but accepted the position as God’s Will. Renowned for his fasting, prayer and miracles, he wrote on confession and repentance, while living in poverty.
John of Rostov - Sept 3
+ 1580. Also called the Merciful and the Hirsute, he was a wonderworker, whose relics were famed for their powers.
John of Alexandria - Sept 4
An early martyr and the brother of St Agathon of Ethiopia.
John of Novgorod - Sept 7
+ 1185. A married priest who was widowed, he became Bishop of Novgorod in 1163 and there built seven churches. He saw the Mother of God and had great power over the demons, defending Novgorod from attack. In old age he retired to a monastery.
John (Moslovsky) - Sept 7
+ 1921. He was a priest shot by Bolsheviks through the window of his house in the village of Verkhne Poltavky in the Amur province.
John of Crete - Sept 15
+ 1811. A new martyr, he suffered under the Turks in Ephesus.
Abundius, Abundantius, Marcian and John - Sept 16
+ c 303. The first two were martyred in Rome on the Flaminian Way under the Emperor Diocletian who ordered them to be beheaded together with Marcian, a senator, and John, his son, whom Abundius had raised from the dead.
John the Baptist - Sept 23
The first of five feasts in honour of the saint, today we celebrate the first, his conception by his holy parents Sts Zacharias and Elizabeth in their old age, as is related in the Gospels.
Andrew, John, Peter, and Antony - Sept 23
+ c 900. These saints were deported from Syracuse to North Africa by the Saracens, at that time masters of Sicily. There they were subjected to savage torture and put to death.
John the New Martyr - Sept 23
+ 1814. Born in Albania, he was a Muslim of Muslim parents. Seeing the power of Christ, he was baptized, and then tortured and beheaded by the Turks for his ‘apostasy’.
John the Theologian - Sept 26
The son of Zebedee the fisherman and Salome, the daughter of Joseph the Righteous, he followed Christ with his brother James and was especially loved by Christ. At His words on the Cross, he took the Mother of God into his care until her dormition. The Romans were unable to kill him and sent him into exile on the island of Patmos, where he wrote the Gospel and the Book of Revelation. Alone of the disciples he was not martyred, reposing at over one hundred years old.
Adolphus and John - Sept 27
+ c 850. Two brothers born in Seville in Spain of a Moorish father and a Christian mother. They were martyred in Cordoba under Abderrahman II.
John Kukuzelis - Oct 1
12th century. A Slav by birth, he was taken to the court of Constantinople. Fleeing vanity, he went to live on the Holy Mountain as a shepherd and ascetic. The Mother of God appeared to him twice.
John the Chozebite - Oct 3
6th century. Also called the Egyptian, he lived at the Chozeba monastery as an ascetic. It is recorded that whenever he served the liturgy, he saw a heavenly light.
John of Apamea - Oct 9
4th century. The son of St Poplinus of Antioch.
John of Riga - October 12
+ 1934. He was born in 1876 to a poor Latvian Orthodox peasant family. Fr John Pommer was to become Archbishop of Riga in Latvia, where he was cruelly martyred by Soviet agents after twenty-three years of episcopal service.
John, Bishop of Suzdal - Oct 15
+ 1373. He was consecrated bishop by the Patriarch of Constantinople.
John of Palestine - Oct 19
+ 320. A soldier and son of St Cleopatra of Palestine.
John of Larisa - Oct 21
+ 1773. From the Peloponnese and a priest's son, he was sold into slavery to a Muslim when he was about fifteen together with his mother, his father having been killed. Tortured, he was stabbed in the heart for refusing to become a Mulsim, when he was eighteen.
John of Syracuse - Oct 23
+ c 609. Bishop of Syracuse in Sicily from 595 until c 609.
John of Pskov - Oct 24
+ 1616. A hermit.
John of Autun - Oct 29
? A bishop venerated in Autun in France.
John of Tsarskoye Selo - Oct 31
+ 1917. Fr John (Kochurov), formerly a priest in Chicago and who had built the Cathedral there, was the first cleric to be martyred under the Soviet yoke.
John and James the Persians - Nov 1
+ c 345. From Seleucia, John, a bishop, was martyred under Shapur IV together with James.
John the Dwarf - Nov 9
5th century. One of the most famous of the Egyptian ascetics, he was a disciple of St Pambo with St Paisius the Great and teacher of St Arsenius the Great. He was famed for his wisdom and obedience and some of his sayings have been recorded.
John the Merciful - Nov 12
+ 620. Born in Cyprus and son of the governor of the island, he was brought up in the Faith. He married, but lost both his wife and children. Famed for his piety and compassion, he was chosen Patriarch of Alexandria. He lived there for ten years, a model of meekness and love, saying that true nobility is in virtue. After the Persian invasion of Egypt, he fled back to Cyprus, reposing on his arrival there.
Benedict, John, Matthew, Isaac and Christinus (Christian) - Nov 12
+ 1005. Monks from Italy who followed St Adalbert of Prague and were murdered by thieves at their monastery near Gnesen in Poland.
John Chrysostom - Nov 13
+ 407. One of the greatest saints and fathers of the Church, he was born near Antioch in 347. A brilliant student, he was baptized as an adult, together with his parents. He became a monk and ascetic and had a vision of the Apostles Peter and John. Ordained priest, he was chosen Archbishop of Constantinople. He compiled the liturgy named after him, wrote commentaries, governing the Church with zeal and wisdom. He denounced unrighteousness in high places and was renowned for his eloquence - hence his title ‘the Golden Mouth’. He was exiled to Comana in Armenia by the wicked Empress Eudoxia and reposed with the words ‘Glory to God for all things’.
John Angeloptes - Nov 27
+ 433. Bishop of Ravenna in Italy 430-433. The Greek name Angeloptes means 'the man who saw an angel'. It was given to him because an angel, visible to him alone, came and helped him serve the divine liturgy.
John the Hesychast - Dec 3
+ 558. Born in Armenia in 454, he became a monk at the age of eighteen, having given away all his wealth to the poor and for the building of churches. Then he was made a bishop. Abandoning this because of intrigues and evil, he went disguised as a simple monk to St Sabbas monastery outside Jerusalem, living in humility and holy silence, later living as a hermit. Returning to the monastery, he was able to see the spiritual world with clarity, conquer demons and heal the sick, also battling against the heresy of Origen. He reposed at the age of one hundred and four.
John of Damascus - Dec 4
+ c 749. Also called St John Damascene, he was a minister of the Muslim Caliph in Damascus. Persecuted not Muslims, but by iconoclasts, he became a monk at the monastery of St Sabbas outside Jerusalem after being healed by a miracle of the Mother of God in which his right hand was rejoined to his arm. At the monastery he wrote many of our services, including the Easter Canon, and many theological works in defence of Orthodoxy. One of the greatest Fathers, hymnographers and theologians, he reposed at the age of seventy-five.
John Gradenigo - Dec 5
+ 1025. A nobleman from Venice in Italy who became a monk in Cuxa in the Catalonian Pyrenees in Spain. After many trials, he reposed as a hermit near Montecassino.
Angelina and John the Despot - Dec 10
16th century. Mother and son, John whose name ‘Despot’ simply means ‘Ruler’ was famed for his piety and benevolence towards the Church in Serbia.
John of Thassos - Dec 20
+ 1652. From the island of Thassos, John went to Constantinople when he was eighteen as a tailor's apprentice. Here he was slandered and denounced to the Muslims by a Jew. Refusing to become a Muslim, John was beheaded.
John of Kronstadt - Dec 20
+ 1908. A parish priest and wonderworker, who foretold the Revolution, calling Russians to repentance, he is one of the greatest saints of the twentieth century.
John and Festus - Dec 21
? Martyrs honoured in Tuscany in Italy.
John Vincent - Dec 21
+ 1012. Born in Ravenna in Italy, he became a monk at St Michael in Chiusa and then a hermit on Monte Caprario. Finally he became bishop nearby.
John the Baptist - Jan 7
This is the main feast of him who baptized Christ in the Jordan at the feast of the Theophany. The greatest and last of prophets of the Old Testament, he is also the first Prophet of the New Testament, thus the hinge of the two Testaments. He alone saw his prophecies revealed in his own lifetime.
John Camillus the Good - Jan 10
+ c 660. Bishop of Milan in Italy. He worked against Arianism and Monothelitism.
John of Ravenna - Jan 12
+ 494. Bishop of Ravenna in Italy from 452 to 494. He saved his flock from the fury of Attila the Hun and mitigated its lot when the city was taken by Theodoric, King of the Ostrogoths.
John the Hut-Dweller - Jan 15
+ c. 450. Born to rich parents in Constantinople, he became a monk and then returned to live in their courtyard in anonymity as a beggar. He revealed himself to his parents only as he approached death, thus bringing them salvation too.
John of Kazan - Jan 24
+ 1529. A martyr.
John, brother of St Arcadius and son of Sts Xenophon and Maria - Jan 26
5th century. Born in Constantinople and sent to Beirut to study, he and his brother were shipwrecked and each became monks in different monasteries. They both later met and also met their parents, who also entered monasteries out of gratitude to God.
St John Chrysostom - Jan 27
+ 407. This is the feast of the translation of his relics from Comana in Armenia to Constantinople in 438. (See November 13).
John of Reomay (Réomé) - Jan 28
425-539. Born in Dijon in France, he became a hermit in Reomay. When disciples gathered around him, he fled and became a monk at Lérins. Here he learnt the traditions of St Macarius and on his return to Reomay, he and the monastery he founded there lived according to them.
John Chrysostom - Jan 30
+ 407. This is his joint feast together with the other great hierarchs St Basil the Great and St Gregory the Theologian. (See November 13).
John and Cyrus - Jan 31
+ 311. They are famed unmercenaries and wonderworkers. St John was a doctor from Alexandria, who realized that illness comes mainly from sin. He went to live as a monk in the Syrian desert where he was joined by Cyrus, a Roman officer from Edessa. They were martyred and their relics were later translated to Rome. Orthodox ask them for help with insomnia.
John Angelus - Jan 31
+ c 1050. Born in Venice in Italy, he became a monk at Pomposa.
Stamatios, John and Nicholas of Chios - Feb 3
+ 1822. From the island of Spetsai, these merchants were arrested by the Turks on Chios together with the captain of the boat they were sailing on, Nicholas. He was beheaded and the two brothers, also refusing to become Muslims, were also beheaded. Stamatios was aged eighteen, John twenty-two.
John of Irinopoulos - Feb 4
+ c 325. A bishop, he took part in the First Oecumenical Council in Nicea.
John and Barsanuphius - Feb 6
6th century. Ascetics who lived in the desert of Gaza, they were wonderworkers and left a famous book of answers to questions on Christian life. St John is also known
as St John the Prophet.
John of Sinai - Feb 12
+ 1091. A bishop and martyr.
John III Scholasticus - Feb 21
+ 577. A lawyer, he became a priest and then in 565 Patriarch of Constantinople. He is famous for writing canons.
John the Saxon - Feb 22
+ 895. Born in Saxony in Germany, he became a monk and was asked by King Alfred to restore monasticism in England after the Danish attacks. He became Abbot of Athelney.
John the Baptist - Feb 24
This feast commemorates the finding of the head of the Forerunner and Prophet, which Was found on the Mount of Olives in the first century by a monk called Innocent. The head was taken to Constantinople in the ninth century, where it worked many miracles.
John the Harvester (Theristos) - Feb 24
+ 1129. Of Calabrian parentage, he was born in Sicily, where his mother had been taken as a slave by the Saracens. He managed to escape to Calabria while still a child and there became a monk. His title Theristos, meaning harvester, refers to a miraculous harvest reaped by the saint.
John Calpha - Feb 26
+ 1576. A carpenter in Constantinople, he refused to renounce Christ and was tortured and beheaded by the Turks.
John of Gorze - Feb 27
+ c 975. Born in Vandières near Metz in the east of France, after some years in the world, he made a pilgrimage to Rome. On his return he restored and entered the monastery of Gorze in Lorraine in 933. Emperor Otto I sent him as his ambassador to the Caliph Abd-er-Rahman of Cordoba, where he stayed for two years. In 960 he became Abbot of Gorze.
John Cassian - Feb 29 (July 23 locally)
c 360-433. Probably born in what is now Romania, he became a monk in Egypt and afterwards went to Marseilles in France, where he founded the monastery of St Victor and a convent, ruling both from Lérins. His Conferences and his Institutes are still read throughout the Orthodox world. He was an ardent advocate of the Orthodox teaching on free will and opposed what later became known as Augustianism.
John the Bulgarian - March 5
+ 1784. A Bulgarian from the Holy Mountain, he was beheaded in Constantinople for confessing Christ.
John Zedazneli - Nov 4
+ c 560. He led thirteen Syrian monks who introduced monasticism into Georgia.
John Moschos - March 11
+ 622. The ascetic writer of ‘The Spiritual Meadow’.
John of Bulgaria - March 14
+ 1802. A new martyr under the Turks.
John the Syrian of Pinna - March 19
6th cent. A Syrian monk who settled in Pinna near Spoleto in Italy. He was abbot of a large monastic colony there for forty-four years.
John of Uglich - March 19
+ 1663. Also called of Vologda and of Prilutsk, he was a prince who entered the monastic life under the name Ignatius.
John of St Sabbas - March 20
+ 796. He was martyred together with the other monks of the monastery of St Sabbas just outside Jerusalem by Arabs just before Easter in 796.
John the Stylite - March 24
6th century. He was the instructor of St Simeon the Stylite.
John the Seer - March 27
+ 394. He lived in the desert as an ascetic from the age of twenty-five until the age of ninety. Through his great humility he was rewarded with the gift of clairvoyance and prophecy.
John the Russian - March 27
+ 1730. A holy confessor.
John the Hermit - March 29
4th century. Son of an Armenian woman called Juliana, he went to live in the desert when still a child. At first advised by a spiritual father, he then lived as a hermit and became a great saint.
John of Ustiug - March 29
+ 1494. A fool-for-Christ.
John of the Ladder - March 30
+ 649. One of the most famous of all Orthodox ascetics, his name comes from the book he wrote describing the rungs of the ladder that the ascetic must follow in his ascent to heaven. He lived on Mt Sinai for sixty-four years in all, reposing as Abbot of the monastery at the age of eighty.
John Koulikas - April 8
+ 1564. Refusing to become a Mulsim, he was imprisoned and impaled.
John the Shipowner - April 8
+ 1669. Born on the island of Cos, John was Orthodox. Having become a Muslim, within a few days he recognized his folly and confessed Christ again. Imprisoned and beaten, he was burned to death on a bonfire.
Antony, John and Eustace, Martyrs - April 14
+ 1347. The famous martyrs of Lithuania. Pagans, they were baptized and then hanged from an oak-tree by those who had remained pagan. Their relics are venerated in Vilnius to this day.
John of Verkhoturie - April 16
+ 1701. A fool-for-Christ.
John of Constantinople - April 18
+ c 820. The iconoclast Emperor Leo the Armenian put John to torture with others. He survived and succeeded his spiritual father St Gregory the Decapolite as Abbot of the Decapolite monastery in Constantinople.
John the New of Ioannina - April 18
+ 1526. He confessed Christ openly in Constantinople, for which he was tortured by the Turks. He was beheaded on Easter Day 1526.
John of the Ancient Caves - April 19
8th century. He was an exemplary ascetic in the Laura or Ancient Caves of St Chariton in Palestine.
John the Confessor - April 27
+ c 832. Abbot of a monastery in Nicea, he suffered much for the veneration of the holy icons and reposed as a result of persecution.
John, Patriarch of Alexandria - April 29
+ 482. Patriarch and confessor.
John the Vlach - April 29
+ 1662. A Romanian martyr.
John of Beverley - May 7
+ 721. Born in Harpham in Yorkshire in England, he became a monk at Whitby. He was consecrated Bishop of Hexham and later became Bishop of York. He ordained St Bede and founded a monastery at Beverley. He showed special love for the poor and the disabled and works miracles to this day. Some of his relics survive.
John the Theologian - May 8
This is the second feast of St John. When he was over a hundred years old, John asked his disciples to dig his grave in the form of a cross. Later, they did not find his body in the grave but on May 8 every year a dust came up from the grave which healed many diseases. (See September 26).
John of Châlon - May 9
+ c 475. Third Bishop of Châlon-sur-Saône in France, consecrated by St Patiens of Lyons.
John of Wallachia - May 12
+ 1662. During the Turkish attack on Wallachia (Romania), John, a handsome young man from a noble home, was captured by the Turks and imprisoned. Taken to Constantinople for protecting himself from the evil desires of a Turkish soldier, he was tortured, also refusing the blandishments of the wife of the soldier, and hanged for steadfastly remaining faithful to Christ.
John, Euthymius, George and Gabriel of Iviron - May 13
+ 998. John was an ascetic who founded the Iviron (Georgian) monastery on the Holy Mountain. The others followed him in the monastery.
John I - May 18
+ 526. Born in Tuscany, he became Pope of Rome in 523. In 526 he went to Constantinople as an envoy of Theodoric, the Arian King of the Ostrogoths. On his return Theodoric imprisoned the Pope and he died.
John of Parma - May 22
+ c 982. Born in Parma in Italy, he was ordained priest. He is said to have made six pilgrimages to Jerusalem. He became Abbot of St John's in Parma (973-c 982).
John Vladimir, King of Serbia - May 22
+ 1015. A wise and merciful ruler, he was a benefactor of the Church. He was beheaded by a rival king in 1015 but his relics are venerated to this day.
John the Baptist - May 25
This is the feast of the third finding of the head of the Forerunner, when it was taken from Comana in Armenia to Constantinople.
John of Gortyna - May 25
An early martyr in Crete.
John of Psychaita - May 26
8th century. He laboured for many long years at the Laura of Psychaita in Constantinople. He was exiled for venerating icons.
John the New Martyr of Bosnia - May 28
+ 1945. Fr John Rapaich was born in 1910 and after seminary taught at the Theological Faculty in Belgrade, where he was active in helping St Nicolas (Velimirovich). In May 1945 he was captured by partisans, imprisoned, starved and beaten. On 28 May 1945 he was shot in the village of Blazhuje. According to eyewitnesses he had first been forced to dig his own grave.
John de Atares - May 29
+ c 750. A hermit in the Pyrenees in Spain. He lived beneath a huge rock, where the monastery of St John de Ia Peña (of the Rock) was later built. This is famous in Spanish history, since the monastery became the cradle of the Kingdoms of Navarre and Aragon.
John of Ustiug - May 29
+ 1494. A Fool-for-Christ and Wonderworker in Ustiug in Russia.
John of Thessaloniki - May 29
+ 1802. He was martyred by the Turks in Smyrna.
John the New of Sochava - June 2
+ 1492. A noble of Trebizond, he was denounced by a Roman Catholic, he was tortured and finally martyred by Jews. Later a Moldavian commander took his relics to Sochava where his relics work miracles to this day.
John of Verona - June 6
7th cent. The successor of St Maurus in Verona in Italy.
John of Tobolsk and all Siberia - June 10
+ 1715. Metropolitan John (Maximovich) was a great Siberian saint and wonderworker, who paved the way for missionary work in China.
John and his mother Anna - June 13
5th century. Though married, Anna left her husband on account of his family difficulties and went to live on an uninhabited island. Here she gave birth to a son, John. Together they laboured in prayer and fasting for over thirty years.
John, Metropolitan of Euchaita - June 14
11th century. A most learned and spiritual man, he wrote canons and books and instituted the feast of the Three Great Hierarchs after a vision.
John the Solitary - June 19
+ 586. An ascetic, he lived near Jerusalem. His purity was such that even the wild beasts obeyed him. He reposed in great old age.
John of Shanghai - June 19
+ 1966. A descendant of St John of Tobolsk, whose surname of Maximovich he shared (see June 10), he was born in 1896 in Poltava, but left Russia after the Bolshevik Revolution. He lived in Serbia, before becoming successively Bishop of Shanghai, Archbishop of Western Europe and then of San Francisco. He loved all the saints and all nationalities. He was a great and compassionate pastor and wonderworker of an international frame of mind. He reposed in Seattle and was glorified in 1994. He is also known as St John the Wonderworker.
John I of Naples - June 22
5th cent. Bishop of Naples in Italy.
John IV of Naples - June 22
+ 835. Known as 'the Peacemaker', he was Bishop of Naples in Italy, where he is venerated as a patron-saint.
John - June 23
+ 362. A priest in Rome, beheaded under Julian the Apostate.
John the Baptist - June 24
This is the feast of the Nativity of the Forerunner, as is related in the Gospels.
John of Tuy - June 24
9th cent. Born in Galicia in Spain, he lived as a hermit near Tuy, where his relics are still enshrined.
John the Czech - June 24
+ 904. A hermit in Bohemia of holy life.
John and Paul - June 26
4th century. Martyrs who suffered in Rome.
John, Bishop of the Goths - June 26
+ c 785. A bishop in Georgia, where the Tartars persecuted the Orthodox, he became bishop of the Goths in the Crimea, but later returned to Georgia. He foretold his own repose.
John of Chinon - June 27
6th cent. Born in Brittany, he became a hermit in Chinon in the west of France. Here he became the spiritual father of Queen Radegund.
John and Cyrus - June 28
+ 311. This is the feast of the translation of the relics of the martyrs in 412. (See 31 January).
John the Blessed - July 3
+ 1589. A fool-for-Christ in Moscow.
John of Solvychegodsk - July 3
+ c 1669. A fool-for-Christ.
John of Alexandria - July 5
4th century. A holy martyr.
John of Babylon - July 9
9th century. An ascetic and cave-dweller.
John of Bergamo - July 11
+ c 690. Bishop of Bergamo in Italy (c 656 to c 690), he was renowned for his learning and great success in fighting Arianism.
Theodore and John of Kiev - July 12
10th century. Vikings, father and son, they were baptized and settled in still pagan Kiev, where they were slaughtered for Christ by the pagans, becoming the protomartyrs of the Russian land. Their relics are preserved in Kiev to this day.
John of Trnovo - July 16
+ 1822. He was martyred for the Faith in Bulgaria.
John of Chalcedon - July 18
9th century. Metropolitan of Chalcedon and confessor.
John the Longsuffering - July 18
+ 1160. An ascetic of the Kiev Caves, he struggled for thirty years against the passions of the flesh. Once he had conquered it, he was bathed in heavenly light and could see in the night as well as in the day.
Simeon and John - July 21
5th century. Great ascetics who lived in the desert and possessed discernment and sobriety of heart and mind.
John and Benignus - July 21
+ 707. Twin brothers and monks at Moyenmoutier in France.
John of Tambov - July 28
+ 1839. Also called of Sezenov, he was a fool-for-Christ
John the Soldier - July 30
4th century. A secret Christian, he was sent by the Emperor Julian the apostate to slaughter other Christians. He refused to do this and Julian had him imprisoned. After Julian had died, John lived as an ascetic. He reposed in peace and afterwards appeared to many people who needed his help.
John the Exarch - July 31
+ c 892. A Bulgarian priest and theologian at the beginning of the tenth century, he translated works by St Basil the Great and St John of Damascus into Slavonic.
John of Petrograd - July 31
+ 1922. John Koshvarov was a priest and new martyr under the Soviet Yoke.
John and Crispus - Aug 18
? By tradition they were priests in Rome who devoted themselves to recovering and burying the bodies of the martyrs, for which they themselves suffered martyrdom.
John of Rila - Aug 18
+ 946. Born near Sophia in Bulgaria, he became a monk after the death of hid poor but devout parents. He became a great ascetic at Rila and many sought his advice. A monastery began at Rila. He reposed aged seventy. His relics are still in Rila, which remains a spiritual stronghold of the Bulgarian Church to this day.
John (Vostorgov) - Aug 23
+ 1918. Born in 1864 in a priest's family, Fr John was a brilliant preacher and writer. At one time he had been a missionary in Persia. Rector of the Church of the Intercession on Red Square in Moscow, he was arrested by the Bolsheviks and shot together with several other new martyrs.
John II the Cappadocian - Aug 25
+ 520. Patriarch of Constantinople.
John of Tomi - Aug 27
+ 303. The son of the holy martyr Mimneus of Tomi, now in Romania, he too was martyred.
John of Pavia - Aug 27
+ 813. Bishop of Pavia in Lombardy in the north of Italy 801-813.
John the Baptist - Aug 29
Today we commemorate his beheading, as is related in the Gospels.
Alexander, John and Paul, Patriarchs of Constantinople - Aug 30
+ 595. Commemorated today together with two other Patriarchs, St John the Faster was Patriarch in the days of the heretical Emperor Anastasius (See September 2).
John II, Metropolitan of Kiev - Aug 31
+ 1089. A Bulgarian, he was Metropolitan for eight years, writing to the Pope of Rome to defend the Orthodox Church from the schismatic practices in Rome.
