Saint John of Shanghai and San Francisco (Maximovitch)
Archbishop, wonderworker of the Russian diaspora
- Feast day
- July 2
- Lived
- 1896–1966
- Patronage
- Refugees, orphans, the displaced, the sick
Saint John of Shanghai and San Francisco is the great wonderworker of the twentieth-century diaspora — a bishop who never slept lying down, walked barefoot, and personally carried Orthodoxy from China to the Philippines to Western Europe to California.
Life
Born Michael Maximovitch in Kharkov province, he fled Russia after the revolution, was tonsured in Serbia and consecrated bishop for Shanghai in 1934. There he built a cathedral, gathered thousands of orphans off the streets, and searched the slums at night for abandoned children.
When the communists took China he evacuated his entire flock of five thousand to a tent camp on the island of Tubabao in the Philippines, then personally lobbied the United States Congress until the refugees were admitted. He later served in Paris and Brussels, restoring the veneration of ancient Western saints, and finally in San Francisco.
Veneration
He kept a total fast through the first week of Lent, served the Liturgy every day of his life, and slept only in a chair. Non-Orthodox hospital staff in Shanghai and San Francisco reported his prayers healing the dying. His incorrupt relics lie in the Holy Virgin Cathedral in San Francisco, and he was glorified in 1994.
When Saint John of Shanghai and San Francisco (Maximovitch) is commemorated
The feast falls on July 2 on the Revised Julian (New) calendar used by most Greek, Antiochian and Romanian parishes. Parishes that keep the Julian (Old) calendar — much of the Russian, Serbian and Georgian Churches, and Mount Athos — celebrate it on the civil date July 15, thirteen days later. You can switch between both reckonings anywhere on this site.
See the full liturgical day for July 2, 2027
That page gives the fasting rule in force, the Epistle and Gospel appointed for the day, and every other saint commemorated alongside Saint John of Shanghai and San Francisco (Maximovitch). To keep the feast, look for a parish in the USA, Canada or Australia directory, and read the Akathist hymns appointed for private prayer.
Other saints commemorated in July
- Macrina the YoungerJuly 19
- Mary MagdaleneJuly 22
- Paisios of Mount AthosJuly 12
- PanteleimonJuly 27
- ParaskeviJuly 26
- Vladimir of KievJuly 15