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Where there is no law, but every man does what is right in his own eyes, there is the least of real liberty
Henry M. Robert

St. Ioann (Maksymovych)The Miracle-Worker

3 November, 1998 - 00:00

Analyzing life stories, one is interested in details, including birth
and death (in Eastern Orthodoxy the way a person passes on is often attached
primary importance; a conscience-stricken bandit repented after being nailed
to the cross, acknowledged His existence and asked Him to rest his soul),
and of course the family, where a given person comes from.

There are unusual life stories about remarkable families. The Maksymovyches
formed an ancient aristocratic dynasty sired by Maksym Vasylkivsky. Among
its most celebrated representatives were Metropolitan Ioann of Tobolsk
and Siberia (1651-1714), who converted thousands of pagans and left a sizable
literary heritage and Mykhailo Oleksandrovych (1804-73), Rector of St.
Volodymyr University (now Kyiv Shevchenko National University), a Ukrainian
educator who published an almanac contributed to by Pushkin, Baratynsky,
and Delvig.

The Maksymovyches gave the twentieth century one of its most captivating
personalities, Archbishop Ioann of Shanghai and San Francisco (1896-1966).

Immediately after his death he started being eulogized as a saint in
Eastern Orthodox churches abroad. His life story was published in Holland
in 1966. There is a long list of English language editions dedicated to
him, and even a divine service. His name is respected in the United States,
France, and Latin America.

A great many people knew him, often meeting him by sheer chance, and
each and everyone (Catholics included) became aware of his saintliness.
There were enemies, of course, enough and to spare. They did their utmost
to make his life miserable. Seraphim Rose, US Orthodox Hieromonk (an Orthodox
monk who is also a priest) and writer, said that these people could not
put up with living saintliness.

The future archbishop was born in Adamivka, a village in Kharkiv gubernia,
and was baptized and named after the Archangel Michael. In 1914, he graduated
from Poltava's military school and in 1918 (before the Soviets came) from
the Law Department of Kharkiv University. In 1921, in the heat of the fratricidal
civil war, his family immigrated to Belgrade where he graduated from theological
college. In 1926, Metropolitan Antony admitted him to monastic vows. Until
1934, Hieromonk Ioann (Old Church Slavonic for Ivan) was first a teacher
in a Serbian institution of higher education and later in a seminary. Even
then one could often hear, "If you want to see a living saint, visit Father
Ioann." In 1934, he was ordained bishop and sent to the Shanghai diocese.

In Shanghai, he found a huge unfinished cathedral and a conflict flaring
between the jurisdictions. He started by restoring Church unity. His flock,
hapless Soviet refugees, soon discovered that the bishop was unbelievably
ascetic. He would eat once every 24 hours and never slept in bed. He organized
several benevolent associations for refugees and an orphanage that would
provide food and shelter to a total of 3,500 homeless children. Almost
daily he visited local hospitals and prisons. He often walked Shanghai
streets at night even under the Japanese curfew which was amazing.

Once he was called to give Communion to a woman who was dying bitten
by a rabid dog. During the rite she had another attack and started foaming
at the mouth. She spat out the Eucharist. Bishop Ioann picked it up, swallowed
it, and told the horrified relatives, "Don't worry. Nothing will happen
to me. It's the Eucharist."

His admirers collected and recorded dozens of miracles he had worked,
among them cases that cannot be explained materially.

He conducted Liturgies not only in the "eternal" languages, but also
in all basic European tongues, including Serbian, and used Chinese while
in Shanghai.

V-E Day made some of the ОmigrОs euphoric. They started sending letters
of repentance addressed to the "leader of the peoples", Joseph Stalin,
congratulating him on the victory, and many returned to the USSR. Some
were hanged right then and there (like Ataman Semenov), others found themselves
before a firing squad or behind barbed wire. Bishop Ioann was pressed hard
to recognize the Moscow Patriarch's jurisdiction, but the Patriarch was
not in a position to help even his relatives. He was pressured, and then
they tried to poison him. Finally a ukase appeared ordering his suspension,
as though he had committed a grave infraction of Canon Law. However, the
Rt. Rev. Ioann had sworn allegiance to the Orthodox Church abroad. Moreover,
he saw that Soviet power could not be trusted, so his reply read: "I will
abide by this ukase only when they prove to me, using the Scriptures and
laws of any country, that oath-breaking is a virtue and allegiance a sin."

The Communists came to power in China. None of the "most democratic
and humanistic" countries wanted to admit five thousand refugees, the flock
of Archbishop Ioann of Shanghai. Had it not been for his tireless care,
how many of these would have wound up in prison camps or in front of firing
squads? No one has calculated or ever will.

After complicated negotiations, the Archbishop was allowed to settle
with his charges on Tubabao, an island in the Philippines. The name was
hard to pronounce and sounded exotic. And the reality matched the name.

Perhaps many things can be explained materialistically. As chance occurrences,
among other things. All right. A fact: for 27 months on end this island
was bypassed by typhoons, although the place was smack on their age-old
seasonal route. And there are more than one season in the year. What was
it? A coincidence? Maybe. The five thousand making up the congregation
knew that Archbishop Ioann sprinkled holy water over their settlement every
night. In two years only once did a typhoon approach the island and at
the very last moment turned aside and it looked very strange. Once the
refugees left the island it was caught in a typhoon and all their barracks
vanished.

Then it was Paris. The local aristocracy was flabbergasted: the newly
appointed archbishop was walking around barefooted. Complaints were filed
and he ordered to use footwear. He obliged and started carrying a pair
of shoes in his hands. Then he was sent to Brussels and later to San Francisco
where he built another church, destined to be the place of his last repose.

And then his time came and he gave up the ghost, but his body turned
out immune to decomposition. It was in the middle of the summer, and it
was a fact witnessed by everybody, including the funeral home officials
and the Supervisory Council who resolved unanimously to allow the body
to be interned in an "unauthorized" place.

People report miracles worked after addressing prayers to Archbishop
Ioann, including recent cases of surviving in a plane with both engines
on fire and a full recovery from AIDS.

They say that the five-cupola cathedral dedicated to the miracle-working
icon of the Mother of God "For Joy to All Who Sorrowful" is seen from many
points in San Francisco, from the ocean, and when standing on the Golden
Gate Bridge... Now it can be glimpsed from the Dnipro in Ukraine as an
icon portraying St. Ioann appeared in a monastery near Cherkasy. This author
saw it.

 

 

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