By Fr. George Dorbarakis
Russia may boast of its remarkable offspring, Saint John; Asia Minor may exalt because in its land the holiness of the Venerable Father was manifested; New Prokopi on the island of Euboea may shine radiantly because there his grace-flowing relic came to rest; yet all the faithful throughout the whole earth celebrate the great Venerable New Confessor. And this is because our saints are the boast and blessing of all the Orthodox everywhere on earth. A saint, that is, may have been “bound” to a certain place while he lived in this life, yet in the end he belongs to the whole Church, which means that every believer can regard the saint as his own, can have him as friend and protector, brother and father. The good Hymnographer of the Venerable one, the sacred teacher Joseph from Kermeira of Cappadocia, repeatedly comes and emphasizes this truth to us through his service:
“Rejoice, most excellent offspring of Russia and honored praise of all the faithful without exception” (Lity).
“Your homeland Russia boasts of your swaddling clothes, while the Asiatic land rejoices in your holy relic” (Second Apolytikion).
Yet: “Come then, all you Orthodox, let us celebrate his divine memory” (Doxastikon of the Lity).
The reason for the universality of a saint — despite the boasting in the Lord by the regions through which he passed and which he sanctified — lies in the fact that the saint in his life was not an autonomous individual who perhaps displayed his natural talents amid the circumstances in which he found himself. Many such people have existed throughout the ages; perhaps they left their mark upon their era either through political, social, or scientific activity, yet in the end they remained “non-existent” for the Church: they are nowhere commemorated among the ranks of her saints as “living forever.” For the Church, the saint leaves his seal upon the world and is remembered forever because he became an imprint of Christ, following His footsteps with exactness. The saint manifests Christ; he points toward Him, like transparent glass that allows the light of the sun to pass cleanly through it. Every saint, therefore, functions like the great John the Forerunner, who continually proclaimed: “He (Christ) must increase, but I must decrease”; or even more so like the Holy Apostle Paul, who, identified with his Lord, confessed: “I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.” Thus every saint becomes a manifestation of Christ, and it is Christ whom the believer sees in his person.
And it is precisely here that the “secret” of the holiness of the Venerable John is found: he always looked toward Christ, and Christ was his unceasing priority. His Hymnographer notes this among many other similar hymns:
“Let us all glorify with hymns John, who took upon his shoulders the cross of the Lord and followed Him to the end through ascetic struggles and contests” (Kathisma of Orthros).
We must note, however: following Christ is not painless. It requires the taking up of the cross, ascetic struggles, spiritual contests. A person’s heart must truly desire it, as we say, if he is to be a consistent Christian. And especially in our own age we must emphasize this truth, because modern Christians often regard following the Lord as a “pleasure trip.” We choose what is painless, pleasant, and beautiful, ignoring or unwilling to take seriously the pain of the cross, whether as warfare against our passions or as resistance against the assaults of the Evil One and his instruments within the world.
The Hymnographer of the Venerable one, in order to show this ascetic dimension of following Christ in Saint John, reminds us not only of his captivity by the Turks, not only of the humiliations he suffered in a foreign land as a slave, nor even only of his poverty and deprivation while living in a stable — things which show his involuntary temptations — but also of the so-called voluntary ones, namely those which he himself added on top of the others: his all-night prayerful standing, his burning tears of compunction, his choice of poverty even when he was given the opportunity to overcome it. In the Doxastikon of the Praises, the Hymnographer cannot help but marvel at this paradox:
“Who will not praise you, you who are truly worthy of praise? Or who will not marvel at the most wondrous manner of your life? For you were not content, O grace-filled one, with the hardship of captivity, but hurried to increase it through ascetic toils and sweats.”
It is therefore not accidental that the ecclesiastical poet compares him with the righteous Job of the Old Testament and even with the great John the Forerunner, whom the Lord Himself praised so highly.
“You lived a strange way of life, glorious one, dwelling in a stable like another Job, venerable one, who groaned and suffered upon the dung heap” (Aposticha of Vespers).
“You imitated Job who lay upon the dung heap, O divinely-inspired one, because you too had the stable of horses as your dwelling” (Ode 4).
His praise of the Venerable one rises even higher, however, when he proceeds to an extraordinary comparison with the great Forerunner:
“The name John which you bore became a name of grace, Venerable Father. For just as the divine Baptist was filled with grace among the Jewish people and clearly testified of Christ, so also you, his namesake and imitator, living among a vain-minded people, received grace from God through your God-pleasing way of life, O John” (Lity).
The divinely-inspired life of the Venerable one in a land of “vain-minded people” and in captivity becomes the occasion for broader observations: the Venerable one was not swept away into the faith of the unbelievers despite all the difficulties, but preserved his faith and accomplished great things within it.
“He did not apostatize, even though he was taken captive by the unbelievers, but stood firm in the law of God as long as the grace-filled one lived” (Doxastikon of the Kathismata of Ode 3).
Which means: when someone is firmly grounded in his faith, the social environment cannot ultimately shake him. On the contrary, it becomes an occasion for greater holiness. It truly is a paradoxical wonder.
“Paradoxical wonder! The divinely-inspired John, though living among the impure, became entirely pure in body and soul” (from the Praises).
Thus the conclusion comes naturally from the sacred teacher Joseph: the captive John took captive both his passions and the devil.
“WIn a wise manner you took captive the impulses of the passions, John, by becoming a captive among the Hagarenes” (Ode 4).
“You appeared as a captive full of the graces of God, because you took captive the ruler of darkness, the devil” (Verses of the Synaxarion).
We are becoming lengthy, but we cannot, while omitting other observations of the poet, fail to mention something we consider among the most essential concerning the life of the Venerable John: the Saint had the grace of Christ actively working in his heart (Ode 1), first because he was aided by his God-pleasing life — for the grace of God does not act unless it finds suitable ground in a person — and second, and more importantly, because he had as his guide the very Panagia, the Mother of our Lord. It is impossible for there to be spiritual struggle, and especially successful spiritual struggle, unless our saints assist together with the Lord, foremost among them the Most Holy Theotokos. She, as our loving Mother, watches over us, helps us, and intercedes for us, especially when she sees our struggle and our good disposition. Let us imagine with how much love she must have looked upon her good child, Saint John, who persisted in the love of her Son and God amid the endless trials he endured.
“Although you were a captive, you had the Virgin Mary guiding you; you had your God-pleasing life as your ally, O John, greatest luminary” (from the Kathismata of Matins).
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
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