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Divine Liturgy in honour of the dormition of the Venerable John of Shanghai ( 02.07.2004 )

Today, when we celebrate the feast of

the Holy Apostle Judas and of

the venerable Paisius the Great,

and we commemorate the dormition

of the Venerable John of Shanghai,

in the monastery of Saint Nicholas

the Wonderworker of Myra in Lycia,

in Ljubanci (on Mt Skopska Crna Gora),

celebrant of the Divine Liturgy was

Metropolitan Nahum of Strumica.

 

                the church of Saint Nicholas in Ljubanci

 

 

The Church in Macedonia cherishes in brightest memory the six years long stay and struggle of the Venerable John in this area (at the seminary in Bitola, in the monastery of the Most Holy Theotokos in Treskavec…), and often names him Saint John of Bitola. The testimonies of his students from the Bitola seminary say that he showed exceptionally generous personal and prayerful guardian’s love toward them. He celebrated Divine Liturgy everyday. It is remembered that he always had with him the icons of Saint John the Baptist and of the Venerable Nahum of Ohrid.

Assured in the wonderworking prayers of the Venerable Nahum, he placed his icon on the ill when he read to them prayers for healing.

And he is well known after his unconditional philanthropy toward the ill, whom to present day he does not forsake in his prayers, and grants healing to all who with faith call him to be their intercessor before God.

From Bitola, where he lived ascetically as a hieromonk and a teacher, being called he left to be ordained and became a bishop of Shanghai. Afterwards the road of the Venerable John means an apostolic mission to conquer spiritual space among modern people on the new continents and among members of subcultures to a great extent distanced from Christianity.

He fell asleep in the Lord on the day before the feast of Saint Nahum, in 1966, after Divine Liturgy which he celebrated in the church of Saint Nicholas in Seattle. And he was buried on the day of the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist.

In May, 1993, in France, the Assembly of Hierarchs of the Russian Church Abroad after an exhaustive examination about the holiness of the Venerable adopted a decision he to be canonized as a Saint. He was canonized on June 19 (July 2), 1994 (and since then his memory has been celebrated on the day of his dormition).

At his holy prayers may the Lord love and protect us always. Amen.