John: Name Day and Patron Saint

The last of the prophets, who preached repentance in the wilderness, baptized Christ in the Jordan and was beheaded by Herod.

What the faithful pray for

• repentance and a change of life
• relief from headaches (the Russian custom
• for he was beheaded)
• the courage to speak the truth

St John served as a soldier in the Roman army under Julian the Apostate (361-363). He was secretly a Christian and was sent out to hunt down and kill the faithful. Instead he freed those who had been arrested, warned others of danger, and helped them escape. When the emperor learned of it, John was thrown into prison in Constantinople. After Julian’s death in 363 he was released and gave the rest of his long life to his neighbors. He visited the sick, comforted the grieving, and showed mercy to Christians and pagans alike. He reposed in old age. Later he appeared to a devout woman and revealed his forgotten tomb, and his healing relics were placed in the Church of St John the Theologian in Constantinople. In Russia he is deeply loved as a protector of soldiers and a defender of the wronged. Orthodox Christians call on him when something has been stolen or lost, and in every sorrow.

What the faithful pray for

• the exposing of thieves and the recovery of stolen property
• finding what has been lost
• protection from thieves and robbers
• justice for the wronged and offended
• strength for soldiers in battle and those in military service
• comfort in grief and sorrow
• help in difficult circumstances
• deliverance from captivity, wounds and sudden death
• healing of illness

Protection

• from thieves and robbers
• from offenders and those who plot evil
• soldiers from wounds and sudden death
• from enemy captivity
• from cruel misfortunes

Miracles

• He is remembered for miraculously exposing thieves, and the Church invokes him for the recovery of stolen and lost things. (source)
• Long after his repose he appeared to a devout woman, revealed his life and the place of his forgotten tomb, and his relics then healed many ailments. (source)

Read the life of St John the Warrior

St John was born around 454 in Nicopolis, Armenia, to a military commander’s family. He loved Scripture, solitude and prayer from his youth, became a monk at eighteen, and at twenty-eight was made Bishop of Colonia. Weary of worldly quarrels in the Church, he secretly left his see. A bright star led him to the Lavra of St Sabbas near Jerusalem. There he hid his rank and served for years as a humble novice, cooking and carrying for the workers. When his rank was discovered, the Patriarch gave him leave to live in silence. He spent years in his cell and in the desert, where a lion defended him from raiders. He spent sixty-six years at the Lavra, gained the grace of the Holy Spirit, read hearts, healed the sick, and reposed in peace at the age of 104. His troparion praises how “by a flood of tears you made the desert fertile.”

What the faithful pray for

• healing of the sick
• deliverance of the tormented and possessed
• rescue from sudden destruction for those who call on his name
• a heart purified for prayer
• humility and obedience
• the Kingdom of Heaven

Protection

• those who call on him from certain destruction
• from evil spirits
• from enemies and raiders, as the lion guarded him in the desert

Miracles

• Alone in the desert during a Saracen raid, he was defended by a ferocious lion that scattered the attackers. (source)
• He scattered fig seeds on barren rock, and a beautiful fruitful tree sprang up that grew to overshadow his cell. (source)
• He read people’s secret thoughts, healed the sick and the possessed, and even in life saved those who called on his name from certain destruction. (source)

Read the life of St John the Silent

The beloved disciple who leaned on the Lord’s breast at the Last Supper, stood at the Cross and wrote the Gospel, the Epistles and the Revelation.