Cassock and icon of St. John of Shanghai in the Church of the Healer Panteleimon
“Lo, thy care for thy flock in its sojourn / prefigured the supplications which thou dost ever offer up for the whole world. / Thus do we believe, having come to know thy love, / O holy hierarch and wonderworker John. / Wholly sanctified by God through the ministry of the all-pure Mysteries, / and thyself ever strengthened thereby, / thou didst hasten to the suffering, / O most gladsome healer. // Hasten now also to the aid of us who honor thee with all our heart.”
Every day I try to read the troparion to Saint John of Shanghai and San Francisco, because from my own experience I have been convinced how quickly he hastens to help and gives what each needs for the salvation of the soul.
In the prayer to him it is said:
“Now thou prayest before the throne of God for us, as thou thyself didst say after thy death: ‘Although I have died, I am alive.’”
He really did die, as all people on earth die. On July 2, 2026, sixty years will have passed since the day of his repose. But he is really alive and continues to help all who ask him for it.
Blue cincture of St. John of Shanghai Saint John was born on June 4, 1896, in the village of Adamovka, Izyum district, Kharkov province. Next year we will mark the one hundred thirtieth anniversary of his birth. And on October twelfth of this year we celebrate the day of the finding of his relics. This date has been entered into the church calendar [of the Moscow Patriarchate] for the first time.
The relics of Saint John are in the USA, in the Cathedral of the Icon of the Mother of God “Joy of All Who Sorrow,” which was consecrated in San Francisco in 1965, a year before the death of Vladyka John. The stream of miracles through prayers at the reliquary with the relics does not dry up. But one can receive the help of John the Wonderworker not only from his relics in America, but also from particles of relics that are in some Russian churches, and also from his cassock and belt, which were given as a gift to the Moscow Fund of John the Wonderworker and the Museum of St. John the Wonderworker.
Of course, not everyone has the opportunity to venerate the cassock of the saint or his relics. But one can receive his help without touching the holy things, because for God the faith of the person is important.
For more than a quarter of a century, the Fund of St. John the Wonderworker has been publishing books telling about the clairvoyance of the saint, about his healing of spiritual and bodily illnesses, about a multitude of other cases of his miraculous help to people all over the world. In all, the Fund has published more than thirty books about Saint John of Shanghai, and the stream of miracles does not cease. He helps the elderly and the lonely, travelers and prisoners, children and pets, workers and students, helps in family, housing, and other problems. But one of the most popular and in-demand books is the book, In Aid of the Sick. I will cite only a few testimonies about the miracles of Saint John, some of which occurred in my native parish of the hospital Church of the Healer Panteleimon at Central Clinical Hospital No. 1 of Russian Railways Corp.
Thus, Elena, the accountant of this Moscow church, placed a tube of baby cream on the cassock, put it on her hands with great faith—and her psoriasis went away. And this illness is practically incurable!
Healing of Anna before our eyes
The first miracle occurred on the night from the twenty-third to the twenty-fourth of June, 2018, on the eve of the presentation of the book, In Aid of the Sick. When appointing the date of the presentation in our hospital Church of the Healer Panteleimon for June 24, we forgot that June 23 is the name day of Saint John of Shanghai, the commemoration day of his heavenly patron, Saint John of Tobolsk—his ancestor, in whose honor he received his name. That night the Lord showed us a miracle: A girl was healed literally on the eve of our missionary event. Only the Lord could combine these two events in time!
That night, in Svetlana Chekalkina's apartment, her daughter's friend Anna suddenly fell ill . She began to have cramps in her legs, severe chills, acute abdominal pain, and her temperature rose to 38.5. We had no doubt that John the Wonderworker would help better and faster than doctors, that the heavenly “ambulance” would outrun the earthly “ambulance.” And so it happened. We had not even finished reading the akathist to the saint when Anya already felt better. We checked her temperature and it was normal. The pains and convulsions passed!
We had not even finished reading the akathist to the saint when Anya already felt better.
Of course, we could not fail to tell about the miracle of Anya’s healing at the presentation of the book In Aid of the Sick. Four people could not have invented such a thing. Besides me, Svetlana Chekalkina and her daughter, Irina Gudkova, a resident of France who was visiting Svetlana in those days, can confirm the miracle.
Other miracles are connected with the cassock of John the Wonderworker. The president of the Fund of John the Wonderworker Igor Kamshilin had long asked Fr. Herman (Podmoshensky) to transfer to the museum something from his personal things. And suddenly on Pascha 2012 a light linen cassock was brought to the museum, which belonged not to Fr. Herman, but to Saint John himself! On June twenty-fourth, 2018, Igor’s son Nikita Kamshilin brought this cassock, one of the most valuable relics, to our church.
Now let us give the floor to the eyewitness of the miracle who told us about the holy shrine that ended up in our church on the day of the presentation of the book, In Aid of the Sick.
Cessation of torments from a grave illness
“Hello, dear brothers and sisters, I want to talk about how the saint has helped our family. It happened in July 2018. Our father-in-law was very seriously ill. His condition was hopeless, his body could no longer endure, bedsores appeared even though he was conscious and suffered greatly, but he could neither speak, nor control his body, nor eat independently. The doctors were powerless to help him. He seemed stuck; he could neither depart this life nor recover from his illness. We, of course, prayed, went to churches, but nothing helped. Other relatives were irritated because of this situation, quarreled among themselves and were not at peace.
“At this time I read in one group on a social network about the opportunity to pray at the cassock of John of Shanghai, which was brought to the Moscow church at the hospital of the Russian Railways Corp. I decided to ask the saint for help! To the woman collecting names for prayer at the cassock of the saint, I wrote the names of the father-in-law and relatives, so that they would calm down and the strife would cease. And on the weekend my husband and I ourselves went to this church. There together with the parishioners we read the akathist, prayed, acquired icons and applied them to the relic. And literally in a few days, on July second, the day of the repose of the saint, our papa departed to the Lord! This was a very good sign for us, that he received help from John of Shanghai—the torments from the grave illness ceased. Holy Hierarch Fr. John, pray to God for us!”
Servant of God Natalia.
Healing from poisoning during the coronavirus pandemic
“The miraculous story of my healing thanks to Vladyka John of Shanghai occurred literally seven days ago. I was poisoned by mushrooms. A heart attack developed, suffocation, convulsions. The ambulance delivered me to the infectious department of one of our city hospitals. But since there was the Covid-19 epidemic, all doctors had been thrown into the fight against it. They examined me in the admission room, gave me a bed in the department, gave me an IV and conveniently forgot about me over the weekend. Although it was precisely in these days that I had the crisis; I was trembling, writhing in pain, and couldn't even swallow. And if not for our dear Vladyka John, I do not know how it all would have ended. I prayed to him practically incessantly and applied his icon to my head and heart. I always have it with me in my purse. And when I stopped shaking, I tried to read the akathist to him.
The doctors were perplexed and could not understand whether I had been ill, because they hadn’t given me any medications
“On Monday miraculously all my symptoms ceased. I felt completely healthy. I wanted to eat. The doctors who saw me after the weekend were perplexed and could not understand how everything resolved so quickly, and whether I had been ill at all, because they hadn’t given me any medications. And my test results turned out perfectly. This is how Vladyka John quickly helped me. I am so grateful to him, that I cannot convey all the joy overflowing in me.”
Servant of God Olga, Moscow, 2020.
A swift miracle
Icon of Saint John of Shanghai “In mid-July, I set off on a long-awaited vacation to the south, to the city of Temryuk. I took with me small paper icons of John of Shanghai to tell everyone about his miraculous healings.
“Visiting my relative Nina, I saw her sick hand, which a cat scratched, introducing an infection. The hand swelled, hurt very much and festered. For half a year Nina daily smeared her hand with different ointments and took medications—and how much advice she heard from neighbors! But nothing helped. The doctor said that surgical intervention was unavoidable for her, it was necessary to cut and clean the wound. I applied an icon of Saint John to Nina’s sick hand. In the morning she reported very pleasant news: The swelling had subsided, and she got rid of the tormenting pain in her hand. When visiting the doctor she heard words of surprise and incomprehension: ‘How did the hand heal in one night? What a swift miracle! In my practice this is the first time!’ Thanks to the swift helper John of Shanghai.”
Nina, city of Temryuk, August 2018
A kind friend
“Saint John ‘revealed’ himself to me somehow unexpectedly. When the holy relic was brought to our city, I did not know this saint at all. Venerating his right hand, I asked forgiveness that I do not know him. Right there, at the exhibition dedicated to the saint, I saw his photo and burst into tears, as if I saw my kind friend, for whom my heart had longed. Later, during Great Lent, I read a book about the saint, The Price of Holiness. I was struck by the story about how Vladyka prayed for food for children and as if reproached with his gaze the witness of his prayer for her lack of faith. ‘So Vladyka will help me too; how can I have so little faith?’ I thought. At the end of the book was an akathist to Saint John. I read it with faith that Vladyka would not leave me. Interestingly, I asked for healing from a female ailment, applying to my abdomen a small icon of the saint, sanctified on the relics. But at that moment when I prayed, the pain in my back, which had tormented me for several years, completely went away. The pains were substantial, I could not even make bows in church. The pain disappeared instantly.
I saw Vladyka’s photo and burst into tears, as if I saw my kind friend, for whom my heart had longed
I confess, I immediately doubted that such a thing was possible, for I could no longer imagine movements without pain. I decided that if during Passion Week I could stand for all the services, then this is definitely a miraculous healing by the prayer of Saint John. And there really was no pain! Glory to God, and may Saint John forgive me!”
Servant of God Joanna, 2017
Help to Oleg the blind, diabetic doctor
I will also tell you about miracles that occurred before my eyes.
Neither in Kharkov nor in Belgorod did doctors undertake to operate on the eyes of my brother, who went blind because of diabetes and suffered from chronic renal insufficiency. But in the spring of 2017 I venerated the cincture of Saint John of Shanghai at the American metochion in Moscow. And I had not yet left the Church of Saint Catherine on Vspolye when help came to my blind brother. Soon Oleg was operated on completely free of charge at Central Clinical Hospital No. 1 of the Russian Railways Corp.—one of the best clinics in Moscow—and he began to see with one eye.
On July 26, 2017, having read “A Letter to John of Shanghai” by Olga Rozhneva, I immediately wrote him my letter with words of enormous gratitude:
“Dear Vladyka John, thank you for your swift help in treating my brother blinded by diabetes. Thanks to you he began to see a little. This is a real miracle!”
By the prayers of Saints John of Shanghai and Luke of Crimea, to whom I prayed much at that time, later, the second operation on my brother’s eyes also went well. But because of many other complications of diabetes on June fourth, 2019, Oleg departed to the Lord. May he have the heavenly kingdom!
Holy Hierarch Fr. John, pray to God for us sinners! Glory to God for all things!
