St John the Russian

John was a young soldier from Little Russia who was captured by the Tatars in the Prut campaign of 1711 and sold to a Turkish cavalry officer in Prokopion, Cappadocia. Threats, beatings and flattery could not make him renounce Christ. He lived in a corner of the stable among the animals, served his master with humble faithfulness, slipped away at night to pray in the church of Saint George, and shared his meager food with the poor and the sick. His master's household prospered because of him, and the officer openly said why. He reposed in 1730, and his relics were found incorrupt. When the Greeks of Prokopion were exchanged to Greece in 1924, they carried their beloved saint with them to Evia, where New Prokopi now welcomes many thousands of pilgrims. Orthodox Christians pray to Saint John the Russian for safe travels, for sick children and for all who suffer far from home.

Venerated far more in Greece than in Russia; Greek devotion centers on his shrine at Prokopi, where pilgrims walk from Chalkida for his feast. OrthoChristian names travelers and shippers; sick children and cancer patients are attested by Wikipedia as tradition. A patronage of 'captives' is natural to his story but was not found stated in a source, so it is phrased only as 'soldiers held captive' and 'those far from home' from his life.