May the Great Fast be a blessing to you all! Please pray to Saint John for me and for a friend of mine, Eusebius.

       Natalie Roberson

       God bless this site.Specijalan pozdrav svim PRAVOSLAVNIM vernicima od CTECA sumadijske Eparhije.

      Marko
      zabojnica@hotmail.com
      Kragujevac, Serbia YUGOSLAVIA

       Thank you for the page concerning Blessed John. My Mother and myself were honored by his hearing our confessions and giving us spiritual direction. During 1967 there appeared to be a visitation of Vladika in our home and again at the funeral of my mother at the Cathedral of the Most Holy Theotokos "Joy of all Who Sorrow" in which Vladika seemed to recieve mother's soul. This was in 1972. What follows is my recollections of the two visitations whose memory seems fresh as though it just happened:

      After the falling asleep of Vladika many people my mother knew and myself were at feeling a great loss. It was during the spring of 1967 that a friend of mother's Mila by name had come by to visit and talk. The conversation turned to speculations as to who the new bishop would be. All three us were still mourning the loss and was hoping for a Bishop who would be close to the stature of John. As the conversation continued on a foggy day in the Richmond district of San Francisco the living room seemed to become brighter and brighter with a white light. All of us became "nervous". My Mother, Anna became aware of a great circle of light and asked if any one sense saw it. I looked and saw a bright white light and in side the light was a man in a bishop's Easter vestments. Mila, was becoming fearful seeing only the white light. I asked mother who she thought it was and as I did so the image became very clear and real looking and we both could see that it was Vladika John. At the same time there was a sense of great peace and the odor of incense. The figure blessed all three of us and departed and the room returned to normal. We were all stunned and amazed. Right afterward we said prayers and crossed ourselves. It was decided not to say anything at that time as mother did not want unnecessary gossip and attention. Mother at the time had a heart condition and had to watch the stress factors in her life. The result was that she had received a healing. Mila had also received a spiritual healing but was unable to describe it. Later I began to realize that what was given was for the our future.

      In 1972 my mother had fallen asleep and her funeral was held at Holy Virgin Cathedral. She lain three days in the Cathedral. The day of her funeral was a very foggy day. There was no sun during the service. The church was dark, Mother's coffin was placed in the center of the church before the Royal Doors. The services began. At one point in the services the chandelier was turned off but there was a luminosity in the Church, a glowing light seem to cover everything. The lights were turned on again later in the service and had no effect the luminosity continued to shine. I went to kiss mother good bye and as I looked up I saw Valdika walk through the closed Royal Doors in White vestments and approach the coffin. He reached over and I saw him pick up mother and she was in his arms very much like the icon depictions of the soul. Mother being warped in swaddling cloth. Vladika, blessed the people at the funeral turned and walked through the Royal Doors again with mother as the service ended. Valdika looked as real and solid as any of us on earth. Several people remarked about the strange and odd feeling they had as well as the peace that filled the church. Many non orthodox had attended the services. I stood there unable to move between my grief and the second visitation of Valdika. Saying my prayers and thanking God for the blessing which had occurred. My sense of grief was eased and to this day I have a sense that there are still things being worked out for me as a result of the visitations.

       Boris Espy <duyesp@backdoor.com

       I really enjoyed exploring the website. I must say the opening homepage is beautiful. It's a pretty site. I've been searching the internet in hopes of finding information on the eastern orthodox religion. I can't seem to find the basic information, like what is to be done during the lent period. What foods are to be eaten and which are not. What days should we fast. If you could please email me I'd greatly appreciate it. Thank You!!

       des plaines, il USA

       How would I go about getting some oil from the vigil lights at St. John's tomb to use for anointing of the sick. Thank you!

       Gregory J. Martonick
       Walla Walla, WAHow USA

       May The Lord Remember All Of You In His Kingdom!!! I am gaining a devotion to St. John Maximovich. I ask him to intercede for me before Our Lord.

       MARK BRAUN
       Annapolis, MD USA

       I combine my voice to all faithful people throughover the world and thanks the founders of this holy sites. It is like a pilgrimage which we may undertake together from East and West and to pray to our common holy farther archbishop John of Shanhai and San-Franscisko. I ask you to pray St.John for our country and suffering peoples in Russia which is the homeland of St.John. St.Farther John, pray God for us!

       Priest Sergei Shirokov
       Moscow, Russia

       Many thanks, I really enjoy the Menion program and have shared it with others.

       Joseph Posusney
       Perkasie, PA USA

       God richly bless your work in creating this page.

       james richie
       st. louis, mo USA

       Thank you for the software...pray for me a sinner.

       Rev. Fr. Elias Greer
       grevakos@juno.com
       San Angelo, TX. USA

       Through the holy prayers of Saint John and all the saints, God grant us His peace. I thank you for all the information and icons of Saint John. His grace be with us all!

       Fr. Emmanuel E. Mantzouris
       Troy, NY USA

       Thank you for the fine work on the page. My wife and are traveling to SF and will be venerating the relics of St. John. We "came home" from Calvinism in 1990. He is Risen.

       W.Z. Baumgartner, Jr
       Franklin, TN USA

       Previous sent e-mail. Our Web site (under construction) www.freeyellow.com/members2/benedictine.

       Rev. Father Damian
       hmcwhine@bellsouth.net
       Orlando, Fl. USA

       This is realy one of the best web sites. Thank you for menologion, i liked it. Thank you for everything. Neka vam vas rad bude na spasenje i neka vas svemilostivi Bog ukrijepi molitvama svetog Jovana Sangajskog.

       Raso Zeljko
       zero@cg.yu
       Herceg Novi, Yugoslavia

       God bless you for your labour of love which you offer to all. The Menaion should be on the computer of every English speaking Orthodox home. Keep up the good work and God cover you.

       Fr. Panagiotes Carras
       71564,3264@compuserve.com
       Toronto, On Canada

       May the Great Fast be a blessing to you all! Please pray to Saint John for me and for a friend of mine, Eusebius.

       Natalie Roberson
       Joseph Posusney
       Perkasie, PA USA

       Thank you for this page dedicated to St. John. I am glad that in our times there are people who love God. God bless you !
      (in Romanian: DOAMNE AJUTÃ !)

       Alin-Vasile Câmpean
       Sibiu, Romania

       Thanks be to God for this website and for the beloved Vladika John. I would like to relate my very recent experiences, and those of you who are reading can judge for yourselves the constant wonderworkings of this great saint: My husband and I have been trying for a year to have a child. We were becoming rather discouraged and wondering what to do next. Two weeks ago (late Feb. 1998), I found the St. John Maximovitch website and began devouring all the information about him I could. I felt a sense of well-being, and began to pray to him. I especially enjoyed the article on his love of animals, and the dove of Vladika John. I prayed to him for several days. Last Sunday (Mar. 1, 98) as I was driving to church, I was thinking about this great man, and out of the corner of my eye, at the very moment my thoughts turned to St. John, I saw the most beautiful bird - a gray dove with pink under its wings! I crossed myself and thanked Vladika John. As I was coming home from church later that day, I saw the same bird - in the same place! Again, I thanked Vladika John and prayed to him. On Wednesday, March 4, 1998, my pregnancy was confirmed. I have not seen the bird again. Glory to God and to our glorious Saint John Maximovitch!

       stephanie dudash mouat
       beaumont, tx USA

       Thank God, and thank you all for this inspirational site!

       Ron Olson
       Santa Ana, CA USA

       I first became interested in this wonderful Saint by reading his book about the Orthodox veneration of the Blessed Virgin Mary. As an Anglican Catholic Priest in a Church which also believes thoroughly in the first Seven Oecumenical Councils, his book was a breath of fresh air. It is thoroughly worn now - almost my whole parish has read it. Our Parish name is, Blessed Julian of Norwich. Because of the problems with some radical "theology" today, we are seriously looking at the changing of our parish name. Julian of Norwich is being used as an excuse to push the agenda of.....Father, Mother, God. This saint is a man we could consider.

       Fr. Michael S. Marquette
       agp@cyberhighway.com
       Sheridan, WY USA

       My husband has always said that the greatest saints are those who are martyred to the Church. As Byzantine Catholics, we share much of your spirituality. As a Byzantine and as one raised as a Latin Catholic, I have seen "bad things happen in a good church." I was attracted to your page for other reasons but his story is the reason I will return. I will take months to read Archbishop John's story. My heart is racing just writing this. The love of God and His Church is so great. I am now learning about "aloneness before God." St. John will teach me much. I hope I may one day pilgrimage to his church. Glory be Jesus Christ!

       Linda Hritz
       Aurora, Oh USA

       This is a truly inspirational site

       Dragi Naumovski
       dnaum@webaxs.net
       Vic Australia

       My first time, compliments of Father Michael Eaccarino, Atlanta Diocese. Look forward to learning from this website!

       Rosemary Hendrix
       Athens, GA USA

       Thank you for this page on the internet. I sit here at my computer with an icon of St. John just over my left shoulder. St. John Maximovich was instrumental in bringing me and my whole family to the Orthodox church. A co-worker introduced me to his life and told me about his being incorruptable. I was intrigued and wanted to know more. He shared pictures he had of when they went out to the canonization (?) of St. John. I was so moved by this information and pictures that I started to search on the internet for orthodox information. We, my whole family, were all baptised last year on Lazarus Saturday. Our priest, Fr. Moses Berry, is a spiritual son of Abbot Herman of Platina California who as you know was helped along with Fr. Seraphim Rose, of blessed memory, who established the Platina St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood. Little did I know that St. John would be instrumental in our being baptised by one who is a direct link to St. John himself.
       Praise God for your work. Humbley yours,

       Symeon Campbell
       St. Louis, MO USA

       Wonderful reading! your page entitled the price of sanctity appears unfinished after the second page. I would love to read the conclusion of this piece.

       laurie veneklasen
       grand rapids, mi USA

       Downloaded your newest edition of the "Menalogion". Well done--love the iconography!!Will be a great help to those of us isolated from immediate sources of Orthodox material!!

       Fr. Michael Macura, CH (MAJ) USA
       Fort Sill, OK USA

       I have been reading this page faithfully for months now, and I think it was instrumental in my slow movement to Orthodoxy. Until I read of Saint John of Shanghai-SF, I was convinced sanctity in the Church was gone. Thank you for the hope.

       Joe Swaydyn
       rusorthodox@angelfire.com
       Saint Leo, FL USA

       Please allow me to share an experience where St. John came to my aid . [For some background information, I am preparing to take communion for the first time after many years and have been going to confession every Saturday night.]

       Well, last Sunday evening I began to feel some shivers, but did not initially pay much attention to them because the weather in Seattle is rather cold and humid. However, it kept getting progressively worse. A little past 11 p.m. as I was preparing to say my evening prayers, I began getting cold chills such as I never experienced before and started shaking so violently and uncontrollably that I could barely hold the prayerbook in my hands. The sudden and exponential increase in the intensity of the chill that I was feeling, and the shaking, terrified me. I had an unmistakable sense that I was losing control; all sorts of panic inspired ideas began to race through my head. The thought flashed through my mind that this was not merely a medical phenomenon [I did not have a flu or anything like it shortly before or shortly after this experience nor any other symptoms associated with it] but [and all these thoughts went through my mind with incredible speed] I only knew that unless I did something effective and fast I would be taken in some direction where I definitely did not want to go.

       The only thought that came to my mind at that instant was to turn to Vladyka John in prayer. Now, as an aside, I have prayed to him before in many daily life situations and can say with certainty that I have been helped. However, none of these situations was particularly dramatic [in the order of making my bus connection and the like] and a sceptic could easily challenge each of them individually [although perhaps with greater difficulty in the aggregate] as either the product of my imagination or just happenstance. In this particular case, however, no such facile contemporary retort will do. Before I even finished my brief and confused plea to Vladyka John for help, the violent shaking was gone; I can best compare it to the abrupt, inexplicable, and total calming of a raging storm. I then took advantage of the respite to continue my prayers . . . But already into the next paragraph, the violent shaking would start all over again.

       Now, with more confidence I did the same thing, turned to Vladyka John with a prayer to deliver me. Exactly the same marvelous phenomenon ensued, I mean this that I can only compare to the calming of the waters by Someone who had absolute and undisputed mastery over them and any other phenomenon as well. And so it went, off and on, a few more times until it gradually subsided, I finished my prayers, rather exhausted, and lay stretched out on the bed, and within about a half hour most of the "symptoms" were gone.

       In the aftermath, I just had an upset stomach for a couple of days, but as of today that seems to have resolved. In conclusion, I just want to ad one more thing about the chills and the shaking. I had chills before, as a child, but there was a qualitative difference here in terms of the coldness I felt. As for the shaking, it simply wasn't of the ordinary, routine kind that we feel when we are not well. I would describe it as the difference between an earthquake that's 2 or 3 on the Richter scale and 8 or 9. Shaking is shaking, but past a certain point the accumulation of quantitative characteristics comes to constitute a qualitative difference. Well, this is my account father.

       I have shared this experience with our parish priest in Seattle, Father Seraphim, and he believes, as I do, that this was a demonic attack. I hope that you will keep me in your prayers, and you may use my testimony in any suitable way to strengthen the faith of others.

       SK
       USA

       Father bless! Beautiful website Fr. Jacob, and thank you for the Menologion I find it very helpful each day.

       Caedmon Parsons
       Dallas, TX USA

       I want to thank St. John for helping me through a frightening experience faster than I could say a prayer to him. Vladyka John pray to God for me a sinner!

       stephen
       USA

       May the Great Fast be a blessing to you all! Please pray to Saint John for me and for a friend of mine, Eusebius.

       Natalie Roberson
       Joseph Posusney
       Perkasie, PA USA

       I'm happy because I'm ortodox and have Vladika Joh'n. I'm Ortodox Serb from Montenegro, where is St. Vasily Ostrosky's and I'm hope to God.

       Mileta Radenovic
       Podgorica, MN YU

       Thank you for this beautiful web.site I owe it to the spirit of St. John, of my coming into the Orthodox Church. God Bless You.

       Nathan Gerasim Forrest
       Nelson, British Columbia CANADA

       I am very pleased and blessed to visit St. John website, I heard about St. John's lives from my priest back in Indonesia, and his live has always been a great encouragment for me, thank you, may God the Holy Trinity bless you.

       Gabriel Raoul Rehatta
       Crestwood, NY USA

       Thank you so much for this wonderful site. I am a Melkite Greek Catholic who for several years here in Sydney was fortunate to be able to mix with Russian Orthodox laity and clergy. During this time I was able to speak with laity and clergy who were present at the canonization. I have also been fortunate enough to be able to purchase the video of the canonization. I also have been able to buy copies of all the English material about St John which has been made available in Sydney. What an ispirational man! I have an icon of St John and I feel so privileged to have it. Saint John intercede with God for me.

       Moira Kelly
       Sydney, NSW Australia

       Even here in South Africa we have heard about St John of Shanghai and San Francisco. Blessed St John, pray for us!

       Steve Hayes
       Pretoria, GP RSA

       we are pleased to have discovered this website, will be checking in from time to time. please remember us in your prayer. God bless.

       GEORGE WAAS
       toms river, nj USA

       Thank you for providing this page! It is very inspiring! Chirst is baptized in the river Jordan! Greetings, Fr. Jacob.

       Fr. Deacon Stephen Dyer
       Eugene, OR USA

       hello, here in ballarat we have a chapel dedicated to Saint John. It is very small, but we have liturgy there every week in english and vespers a few nights a week. We are in the Serbian church and we are converts. We love Saint John and we pray to him often, he has even blessed us with a miracle, we believe.May his prayers be with us.

       Daniel
       ballarat, vic australia

       I was fortunate to have read your publication "Divine Ascent", and this was while I was visiting another great monastery in Arizona; Saint Anthony's Monastery. My only request is to please let me know if there are anymore Chinese persons that are Christian Orthodox in California. Thank you for the most fitting website for such a great saint.

       Fragitsa Halkias
       Montreal, Quebec Canada

       God bless you, brethren! I wrote here on 13th of August, after that I was happy to visit S.Francisco and to see by my own eyes and to feel by my heart the real sanctity of St. John's relics. I think that it is the most holiest place in the world. St. John pray for us!

       F. Igor Pchelintsev
       N. Novgorod, Russia

       Especially inspiring at this moment in my life when God is calling me out of a secular life to serve Him fully. Thank you for being there when I needed this lift. God bless you in your work and all things. L.C.

       Lee Cantelon
       Victoria, BC Canada

       May Vladyka John pray for the forgiveness of my sins and for the recovery of my friends, Juan and Gil, who are beset by a depressive mental condition. Would anyone else also remember them in their prayers to St. John, especially Juan who is in the midst of a great struggle right now. Thank you.

       stephen karganovic
       seattle, wa USA