Blessed John the Wonderworker. A Preliminary Account of the Life and Miracles of Archbishop John Maximovitch by Fr. Seraphim Rose and Abbot Herman

A Preliminary Account of the Life and Miracles of Archbishop

John Maximovitch

by Fr. Seraphim Rose and Abbot Herman

Compiled and Edited by

the St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood

Preface to the First Edition

The righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance. (Psalm 111:6)

One of the most striking things in the life of the Orthodox Church in recent years has been the extraordinary response of Orthodox believers in many Local Churches and jurisdictions to the remarkable life of the reposed hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church, Archbishop John Maximovitch, who served the Church as bishop first of Shanghai in the Far East, then of Western Europe, and finally of Western America and San Francisco. This righteous man, who even in our cold and faint-hearted century, was like unto the great Orthodox hierarchs of old, has inspired such love and veneration among Orthodox Christians, many of whom never knew him when he was alive, that with his death in 1966 one may say that a whole new chapter in his

"life" has opened: precisely that of his veneration by the Orthodox faithful.

The present volume is’ a_ preliminary collection of materials in English on Archbishop John, such as have appeared in The Orthodox Word journal since’ 1966. These materials include a brief briography and several more detailed chapters on his life; but primarily they are an account of the world-wide veneration of Archbishop John which has risen in these years, as well as of Archbishop John's own response to this veneration; his miracles and manifestations to those who call upon his prayers with faith and know that he is not "dead" at all, but alive in God and able to answer our heartfelt entreaties. Inspired by the Russian-language Chronicle of Bishop Savva of Edmonton, (St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood, Platina, 1976), the present volume includes translations of several of the chapters of this book, but it is rather broader in its scope and includes much_ material (including new testimonies and miracles which have occurred’ since 1976) that is not contained in the Russian volume.

In the early Christian centuries’ there were many books detailing the achievements of God's righteous men and the veneration of the faithful for them: the Lausiac History of Palladius, the Spiritual Meadow of John Mos- chus, the Dialogues of St. Gregory the Great, the many Patericons and individual saints. In our poor days the righteous have become few, and there are not many books about them. May this Chronicle serve to inspire the Orthodox Christians of these last times who, it may be, have become faint-hearted in their labors of piety; may it show them that, despite our own weaknesses and failings, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and today, and forever (Heb. 13:8), and that there is nothing more pleasing to God and more fruitful for the salvation of men than the righteous life in Christ of which Archbishop John is such a shining example.

Father Herman St. Herman of Alaska Monastery Platina, California

Christmas, 1979

Contents

Preface to the First Edition

Preface to the Third, Revised Edition

PART I:MATERIALS ON THE LIFE

OF BLESSED JOHN

1. Bishop Savwva, First Chronicler of

Blessed John’s Life and Miracles

2. The Vita Prima of Blessed John

3. Childhood

4. Teacher at the Bitol Seminary, Yugoslavia

5. Wonderworker of Shanghai

6. Victim of Envy

7. Apostle to the West

8. Blessed John in the Netherlands

9. The Death of a Saint

10. The Sepulchre

PART II: A PICTORIAL BIOGRAPHY

PART III: A RECORD OF BLESSED

JOHN’S INTERCESSIONS

Editor’s Preface

1. Deliverance from Blindness

2. Deliverance from Certain Death

3. Miraculous Preservation in Vietnam

4. Healing of Leg Ailments

5. Healing of a Dangerous Growth

6. Help in Finding a Spouse

7. Mystical Protection at Death

8. Protector of Tyavellers

9. Deliverance from Cancer

10. Preservation from a Car Accident

11. Hope for Departed Non-Orthodox

12. Reminder to Pray for the Dead

13. Healing of an Ulcer

14. Help in Stopping Bleeding

15. ‘“Pray for the Sick”

16. Call to Orthodoxy

17. Miracles in France

18. Healing from Asthma

19. The Closeness of Saints

20. Healing of Arthritis

21. Healing of Injured Fingers

22. Deliverance from aSkin Growth

23. Help for the Paralyzed

24. Diverting of a Hurricane

25. Help for a Sufferer of Rheumatism

26. The Healing Oil

27. An Infection Abated

28. Deliverance from Meningitis

29. Relief from Eye and Stomach Pain

30. Help for a Broken Hip 285

Help in Finding Things

32. Relief from a Spinal Deformation

33. Healing of Neuralgia

34. Miraculous Help after Reading

the Service to Blessed John

35. The Closeness of Blessed John

36. Protection of Three Orthodox Boys

37. A Miraculous Telephone Conversation

38. Removal ofaSwelling

39. Intercession for a Jewish Boy

40. A Paschal Resurrection from Near Death

41. Salvation of Shanghai from Bombing

42. Guardian of Spanish Orthodox Christians

43. Restoration of Mental Healt

44. Deliverance from Death

45. Deliverance from Fire

46. Disappearance of Arthritic Pain

47. Healing of a Hopelessly Sick Doctor

48. Help in Asthma Attacks

49. Salvation from Typhus

50. Healing of Appendicitis

51. Help in Acquiring Seminary Education 52. Healing of Emphysema

53. Help in Finding Work

54. Healing of Fingers

55. Disappearance of a Carbuncle

56. Help in Avoiding Surgery

57. Healing of Brain Disease

58. Recovery from Skin Burns

59. Removal of Eczema

60. Immediate Termination of a Prolonged Illness

61. Deliverance of the Homeless

62. Saving of an Eye

63. Finding of a Lost Friend

64. Preservation of a Child’s Leg

65. Mystical Contact with the Hearts of Children

66. Healing of a Protruded Spinal Disc

67. Healing of a Thumb, Eye and Back

68. Healing of Peretonitis

69. Healing of Intestinal Maladies

70. Relief from a Rash

71. Healing from Neuralgia and the AIDS Virus

72. Relief from Insomnia

73. The Miracle of the Button

74. Intercession for a Newborn Infant

75. Raising of a Paralytic

76. The Clairvoyance of Blessed John

77. Blessed John the Quick-Hearer

78. Help to the Lesna Convent

79. Healing from Internal Poisoning

80. Healing from Dipthenia

81. Healing from Meningitis

82. Fire from Heaven

83. Call to Repentance

84. Hearkening to the Call of the Dying

85. Help After a Lung Operation

86. Help for a Respiratory Infection

87. Saving of Two Lives

88. Healing for a Paralyzed Arm

89. Help in Finding Work

90. A Health-Restoring Vision

91. Rescue from an Obsession with Obedience

92. Returning of a Loved One

93. Reading of Thoughts

94. Clairvoyant Fearlessness

95. The Saint’s Healing of Those Who Turned Against Him

96. ‘Restoring of Life through the Holy Mysteries

97. A Car-Accident Victim Restored to Health

98. Termination of a Drought

99. Help in Childbirth

100. The Saint’s Own Approval of Publishing Miracles

EPILOGUE