Church of Peter and Pavel

Holy Patron's Day at Russian Orthodox Church

The Russian Orthodox Church in Jacksonville, FL celebrated the 50th anniversary of their Patron Saint, St. John of Shanghai & San Francisco. It was a special event for this church, the ceremony included Bishop Mitrophan, visiting from New Jersey. The event also included an exhibition of the works of photo artist Ivan Zhuk. This event started on the evening of July 1st (Friday evening) and continued on Saturday July 2nd.

A Brief Bio on St John of Shanghai & San Francisco

St. John was born Mikhail Borisovich Maximovitch in 1896 in the village of Adamovka in the Kharkov Governorate (in present-day southern Ukraine). He came from the same family of Serbian origin as that of St. John of Tobolsk, whom he was said to resemble in several respects. From 1907 to 1914 he attended Poltava Military School. He received a degree in law from Kharkov Imperial University in 1918. His family brought him to Belgrade in 1921, where in 1925 he graduated from Belgrade University with a degree in theology.

In 1926 he was tonsured a monk and ordained a hierodeacon by Russian Metropolitan Anthony (Khrapovitsky), who gave him the name of John after his saintly relative. Later that same year, he was ordained to the priesthood by Rusiian Bishop Gabriel of Chelyabinsk. For several years afterward he worked as an instructor and tutor in Yugoslavia. He worked as a religious teacher in the Gymnasium of Velika Kikinda between 1925 and 1927. In 1929, Holy Synod of the Serbian Orthodox Church appointed him a teacher of the seminary in Bitola. The principal of the seminary was Nikolaj Velimirović. In 1934 he was ordained a bishop of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia by Metropolitan Anthony and assigned to the diocese of Shanghai.

In Shanghai, Bishop John found an uncompleted cathedral and an Orthodox community deeply divided along ethnic lines. Making contact with all the various groups, he quickly involved himself in the existing charitable institutions and personally founded an orphanage and home for the children of indigents. Here he first became known for miracles attributed to his prayer. As a public figure it was impossible for him to completely conceal his ascetic way of life. Despite his actions during the Japanese occupation, when he routinely ignored the curfew in pursuit of his pastoral activities, the Japanese authorities never harassed him. As the only Russian hierarch in China who refused to submit to the authority of the Soviet-dominated Russian Orthodox Church, he was elevated to archbishop by the Holy Synod of ROCOR in 1946.

When the Communists took power in China, the Russian colony was forced to flee, first to a refugee camp on the island of Tubabao in the Philippines and then mainly to the United States and Australia. Archbishop John travelled personally to Washington, D.C. to ensure that his people would be allowed to enter the country.

In 1951 John was assigned to the archdiocese of Western Europe with his see first in Paris, then in Brussels. Thanks to his work in collecting lives of saints, a great many pre-Schism Western saints became known in Orthodoxy and continue to be venerated to this day. His charitable and pastoral work continued as it had in Shanghai, even among a much more widely scattered flock.

In 1962 John was once again reassigned by the Holy Synod to the see of San Francisco. Here too, he found a divided community and a cathedral in an unfinished state. Although he completed the building of Holy Virgin Cathedral and brought some measure of peace to the community he became the target of slander from those who became his political enemies, who went so far as to file a lawsuit against him for alleged mishandling of finances related to construction of the cathedral. He was exonerated, but this was a great cause of sorrow to him in his later life.

Deeply revering St. John of Kronstadt, John Maximovitch played an active role in preparation of his canonization.

The Relics of St. John
On July 2, 1966 (June 19 on the Julian calendar), St. John died while visiting Seattle at a time and place he was said to have foretold. He was entombed in a sepulchre beneath the altar of the Holy Virgin Cathedral he had built in San Francisco dedicated to the Theotokos, Joy of all who Sorrow, on Geary Boulevard in the Richmond district. In 1994 he was solemnly glorified on the 28th anniversary of his death. His unembalmed relics now occupy a shrine in the cathedral's nave. His feast day is celebrated on the Saturday nearest to July 2. He is beloved and celebrated worldwide, with portions of his relics located in Serbia, Russia, Mount Athos, Greece (Church of Saint Anna in Katerini) Bulgaria, Romania, United States, Canada (Holy Trinity Serbian Orthodox Church, Kitchener), England (Dormition Cathedral of the Russian Orthodox Church, London) and other countries of the world.

About Salekhard Most Viral,

About Salekhard Most Viral,

We had two hours free time to see the city and surrounding area. Not a lot of, well, not because Paris ...) to call a taxi, arrived pretty Volga, with a colorful man of about fifty. A ride-ka you have Dad in Yamal bit!

01. The driver at first confused (which take us?), But in the end had a good tour for us to tinker around the city and surrounding area, describing his life in Yamal, for which we are sincerely grateful.

02. First, we visited Obdorsky jail, so imbued with the spirit of history was to be. The name comes from the river Ob and the Komi word dor, with a value of Beach, so Obdorsk means Priobsky Beach.

03. Ostrog was built by Cossacks in 1595. Goal? Probably for the collection and storage of tribute from the Samoyeds, as well as the protection of the latter from the raids of foreign thieves. Well, it's almost the official version.

04. Since 1635 there are permanent residents, which eventually leads to the gradual transformation of the fortress in Obdorsk civil settlement.

05. In 1807, the stockade was torn down, the territory expanded and healed habitual rural life. By the middle of the XIX century, lived here continuously for about two hundred Russian families, mostly fishermen once came from Tobolsk and Berezov. The main attraction of the day - New Year's Fair, when compared to January in Obdorsk merchants from Siberia and Europe (Arkhangelsk, Nizhny Novgorod and Veliky Ustyug). What is traded? However, what is rich northern region - products of reindeer herding, fishing and hunting. In good years, some exchange of goods reached 1 million rubles, the then!
Up until 1923 Obdorsk remained the administrative center Obdorsk Parish, Berezovsky district, Tobolsk Province. But then came the advice ... Remember how in the International sung the whole world of violence, we razed to the ground, and then we ours, we construct a new world ...? All private crafts, shops and businesses were nationalized, the peasants brutally suppressed revolts. Obdorsky jail was finally demolished and in its place came the old (as they say today) River Station.

06. On the other hand, the industry began to develop the region. Lesotarny construction plant, there is electricity, fish-canning industry (existing up to the present day).

07. The city is growing mainly due to the special settlers from the southern regions, but enthusiasts arrived at the call of the party and Komsomol to perform feats. But first of course more. After the Second World War in Salekhard (1933 Obdorsk becomes Salekhard, from the Nenets town on the Cape) based management of the famous 501st construction, a leading construction of the railroad from Salekhard to Nadym ... / Igarka / Chukotka ...

08. Miraculously survived those years, stone (first in Yamal), the temple of Peter and Paul, built in 1894. After the war the building was used as a vegetable store, warehouse, school sports.

09. And the potatoes are growing ..)

10. In the second half of the XX century, the city grows, new residential buildings, cultural facilities, improving infrastructure. Salekhard becomes a base for expeditions leading geological and Intelligence work on the discovery of new oil and gas fields.

11. Our taxi driver came here thirty years ago a young man in search of a better life, simply put to work. And I fell in love was to be in the north or in the future of his wife. Since then, and lives here and is happy with his words. And the town has changed markedly in his eyes, turned into a bright and easy-to-life center. The photo entertainment center Polaris.

12. To be honest I was surprised. From the river, the city looks pretty depressing

13. But little Trains on the streets,

14. The impressions are formed very different.

15. Salekhard - really bright varied atypical city.

16. Most of the buildings that were built not typical (I could be wrong, it's just my impression) in the post-Soviet period. The building of the National Library of Yamal.

17. Unique bridge torch through Shaytanka river, built in 2004. Besides that glows in the dark, like a Christmas tree, so also a restaurant with a viewing platform is located on the top of it. True closed in 2016 ...

18. And on the other side Shaytanka River, with views of the private sector, and even see the traditional northern barracks. Well Prosecutors YaNAO sparkles so to speak.

19. But if you look a little, it is easy to see, and a completely new house, which replaced thus a two-story barracks.

20. The main characters of today's tourist Salekhard.

21. The mosque seems the most northern in Russia, and perhaps on the planet. Corps Yamal versatile college opened in 2008

22. Clearly visible here and construction of the temple complex of the Transfiguration.

23. On being built waterfront Shaytanka river met our cadets with the ship mechanic Kalashnikov. The guys got out on the free tour. Exchanged experiences and dispersed. See you there ever anything else? )