A saint's day
St John of Kronstadt
John Sergiev, born in 1829 in a poor village in the far north of Russia, was a slow learner until he prayed one night on his knees and received such understanding that he graduated among the first of his class. As a married priest in Kronstadt, the port city of sailors, laborers and beggars, he gave himself entirely to the poor, came home barefoot because he had given away his shoes, and founded a House of Industry so that the destitute could earn their bread. He served the Divine Liturgy daily, and countless healings came through his prayers.
The dates
- Kept on
- 20 December (2 January on the Old Calendar)
- Next, New Calendar
- Next, Old Calendar
The New Calendar (the Greek, Antiochian, Romanian and Bulgarian churches, the OCA and most converts) keeps fixed feasts on the church date; the Old Calendar (the Russian, Serbian and Georgian churches, Jerusalem and Mount Athos) keeps them 13 days later. Pascha and the feasts that follow it are kept on the same day by both.
How the day is kept
Russian piety especially invokes him for those enslaved to drink, and families pray to him for a loved one fighting addiction.
The faithful also pray to him in sickness, in poverty and debt, and for work after a job is lost.
The Russian Church Abroad glorified him first, in 1964, on the day of his birth, and the Moscow Patriarchate in 1990; each keeps its own day of his glorification.
Name days
These names keep their name day on this feast: