John of Kronstadt

Saint John of Kronstadt (Russian: Иоанн Кронштадтский) (19 October 1829, Sura, Arkhangelsk–20 December 1908, Kronstadt) was a Russian Orthodox Christian presbyter and a member of the synod of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Biography

He was born as Ivan Ilyich Sergiyev (Russian: Иван Ильич Сергиев) on 19 October 1829 at Sura, near the White Sea, in Russia.

From 1855 he worked as a priest in Saint Andrew's Cathedral, Kronstadt, the naval base on the outskirts of St Petersburg. Here he committed himself to charity, especially to those who were remote from the Church, and travelled extensively throughout the Russian empire. He was a member of the conservative Union of the Russian People, but did not commit himself politically.

In the early 1890s St. Father John became well known, and people from all over Russia came to him every day in thousands. Even the dying Tsar Alexander III, in 1894, summoned him to Livadia Palace so he could be given communion by St. John. The bishops treated him with high respect. He was already greatly venerated at the time he died, on 20 December 1908.

In 1903, St. John of Kronstadt, alongside Archimandrite Theophan, Alexandra's confessor, and Bishop Hermogen of Saratov, sponsored Rasputin's first appearance in the imperial capital St. Petersburg; the Orthodox Church were looking for 'holy men' who hailed from the peasantry, to 'revive its waning influence' among the urban population, and increase the church's prestige in the court of Tsar Nicholas II.

In 1909 Nicholas II wrote an order to establish commemoration of St. John in the Church. Following it the Holy Synod issued an edict to commemorate St. Father John annually at the day of his death.

He was canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia in 1964, and by the Russian Orthodox Church in 1990. Archbishop John Maximovitch of Shanghai and San Francisco (later glorified as a Saint, as well) played an active role in preparation of St. John's canonization. His life and work are commemorated on the feast days of 20 December and October 19.

Many churches around the world and Ioannovsky Convent, the second largest monastic community in St Petersburg are dedicated to St. John of Kronstadt.

Criticism

After the 1905 Revolution some followers of St. John of Kronstadt, so-called the Ioannity, formed an underground religious organization that was both deeply anti-socialist and antisemitic, supporting the pogroms of the Black Hundreds movement. Though St. Father John publicly denounced the 1903 massacre of Jews in Kishinev, he, according to James Webb, later recanted and accused the Jews of causing the violence.

He was also one of the religious figures who patronised the Union of the Russian People, which has been described as 'an early Russian version of the fascist movement', which 'above all [was] anti-Semitic'.

Among emigre Russians, the canonization of St. John of Kronstadt was criticized by Alexandra Lvovna Tolstaya, the daughter of Leo Tolstoy, because of the priest's negative stance toward her father's apostasy from the Church, though she later reversed her position on this.

Translations of his works

• Predigt am Tage der Einführung der Allgepriesenen Jungfrau Maria in den Tempel translated by Karl Christian Felmy (in German)
• Predigt über die Kommunion der heiligen Geheimnisse translated by Karl Christian Felmy (in German)
• Mein Leben in Christo. Aus dem Tagebuch, Übers. v. S. H. Kurio, München 2008, ISBN 978-3-935217-33-0.
• Blessed Father John of Kronstadt on Prayer (1966 Jordanville)
• Counsels on the Christian Priesthood, tr. W. J. Grisbrooke (1994 Crestwood)
• Spiritual Counsels of Father John of Kronstadt, tr. E. E. Goulaev (1967 London)
• My Life In Christ Or Moments of Spiritual Serenity ... Extracts From The Diary Of ... John Ilyich Sergieff ... Cronstadt ... Translated ... By E. E. Goulaeff (1897) [1]
• My Life in Christ at archive.org
• Sorrow and Joy: A Homily on the Day of the Nativity of the Most Holy Mother of God at pravoslavie.ru