John of Kronstadt

Saint John of Kronstadt.
Icon of Saint John of Kronstadt.

Saint John of Kronstadt (Russian: Иоанн Кронштадтский) (19 October 1829, Sura, Arkhangelsk–20 December 1908, Kronstadt) was a Russian Orthodox Christian presbyter and a member of the synod of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Biography

He was born as Ivan Ilyich Sergiyev (Russian: Иван Ильич Сергиев) on 19 October 1829 at Sura, near the White Sea, in Russia.

From 1855 he worked as a priest in Saint Andrew's Cathedral, Kronstadt, the naval base on the outskirts of St Petersburg. Here he committed himself to charity, especially to those who were remote from the Church, and travelled extensively throughout the Russian empire. He was a member of the conservative Union of the Russian People, but did not commit himself politically.

In the early 1890s St. Father John became well known, and people from all over Russia came to him every day in thousands.[1] Even the dying Tsar Alexander III, in 1894, summoned him to Livadia Palace so he could be given communion by St. John.[2] The bishops treated him with high respect.[3] He was already greatly venerated at the time he passed away, on 20 December 1908.

In 1903, St. John of Kronstadt, alongside Archimandrite Theophan, Alexandra's confessor, and Bishop Hermogen of Saratov, sponsored Rasputin's first appearance in the imperial capital St. Petersburg; the Orthodox Church were looking for 'holy men' who hailed from the peasantry, to 'revive its waning influence' among the urban population, and increase the church's prestige in the court of Tsar Nicholas II.[4]

In 1909 Nicholas II wrote an order [5] to establish commemoration of St. John in the Church. Following it the Holy Synod issued an edict to commemorate St. Father John annually at the day of his death.

He was canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia in 1964, and by the Russian Orthodox Church in 1990. Archbishop John Maximovitch of Shanghai and San Francisco (later glorified as a Saint, as well) played an active role in preparation of St. John's canonization.[6] His life and work are commemorated on the feast days of 20 December[7][8] and October 19.[9]

Many churches around the world and Ioannovsky Convent, the second largest monastic community in St Petersburg are dedicated to St. John of Kronstadt.

Criticism

After the 1905 Revolution some followers of St. John of Kronstadt, so-called the Ioannity, formed an underground religious organization that was both deeply anti-socialist and antisemitic, supporting the pogroms of the Black Hundreds movement.[10] Though St. Father John publicly denounced the 1903 massacre of Jews in Kishinev,[11] he, according to James Webb, later recanted and accused the Jews of causing the violence.[12]

He was also one of the religious figures who patronised the Union of the Russian People, which has been described as 'an early Russian version of the fascist movement', which 'above all [was] anti-Semitic'.[13]

Among emigre Russians, the canonization of St. John of Kronstadt was criticized by Alexandra Lvovna Tolstaya, the daughter of Leo Tolstoy, because of the priest's negative stance toward her father's apostasy from the Church, though she later reversed her position on this.[14]

Translations of his works

References

  1. ↑ I. K. Surskiy. St. Father John of Kronstandt (in Russian)
  2. ↑ John Perry & Constantine Pleshakov The Flight of the Romanovs: a Family Saga (Basic Books, 1999) pg. 62
  3. ↑ Saint John of Kronstadt. Beginnings of faith. Начала веры, М., 2009. ISBN 978-5-91362-208-2. (Russian)
  4. ↑ Figes, p. 29
  5. ↑ «Церковный вестник», 1909, № 4 (22 января), стб. 97.
  6. ↑ Blessed John the Wonderworker: A Preliminary Account of the Life and Miracles of Archbishop John Maximovitch. Platina: St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood, 1987.(ISBN 0938635018)
  7. ↑ Great Synaxaristes: (Greek) Ὁ Ἅγιος Ἰωάννης τῆς Κρονστάνδης (Ρῶσος). 20 Δεκεμβρίου. ΜΕΓΑΣ ΣΥΝΑΞΑΡΙΣΤΗΣ.
  8. ↑ December 20/January 2. Orthodox Calendar (PRAVOSLAVIE.RU).
  9. ↑ October 19/November 1. Orthodox Calendar (PRAVOSLAVIE.RU).
  10. ↑ Christel Lane (1978). Christian Religion in the Soviet Union: A Sociological Study. SUNY Press. p. 81. ISBN 978-0-87395-327-6. Retrieved 22 September 2013.
  11. ↑ Krista Berglund (1 January 2012). The Vexing Case of Igor Shafarevich, a Russian Political Thinker. Springer. p. 394. ISBN 978-3-0348-0215-4. Retrieved 22 September 2013.
  12. ↑ James Webb (June 1976). The occult establishment. Open Court Pub. Co. ISBN 978-0-91205-056-0. Retrieved 22 September 2013.
  13. ↑ Figes, p. 196
  14. ↑ Michael Protopopov (5 May 2006). A Russian Presence: A History of the Russian Orthodox Church in Australia. Gorgias Press LLC. p. 261. ISBN 978-1-59333-321-8. Retrieved 22 September 2013.

Bibliography

Further reading

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