A few years ago I had a strained ligament in my knee partially healed by applying oil from St John's sepulchur to it. As the oil made contact it felt like wind blowing through my knee and immediately the pain ceased and I could walk normally. Soon some pain returned and my leg tightened a bit but not nearly as much as before. Repeated applications didn't relieve the pain, but eventually it healed in the 'usual' way.

       Several months ago a strange rash on the big toe of my right foot appeared. I began applying oil and after the first application, after the oil went away, the rash had changed color. Up to this point for more than a few weeks it had remained the same color, and still expanding in size. After the first application of oil, the color changed and the rash stopped growing. Soon it shrunk and was gone!

       I recently met a schema-monk on Agion Oros at the Skiti of Agia Anna. He told me that a few years ago a father from Esphegmenou monastery gave him a copy of the video of the glorification of St John. As this monk I met took the tapes, he felt an infusion of grace course through his arms and up into the rest of his body coming from the tapes as he took them. It was so noticeable that he speaks about it with awe to this day! Ever since, he's been a venerator of St John!

       Glory to God!

       St John pray for us!

       Anonymous from California

       It is with great joy that I relate how Saint John Maximovitch continues to be a wonderworker even to this day.

       I was badly injured in a diving accident in 1969 in New York. I suffered severe damage to my lower spinal cord resulting in chronic pain. This pain was so severe that while working in New York City I needed assistance getting to and from my car.

       This injury has been complicated by fibromyalgia. Since 1992 I was found to be totally disabled.

       There are frequent bouts of severe pain in my lower back (I cannot stand for more than a few minutes) and my lower legs and feet suffer from peripheral neuropathy (they are void of feeling). Most recently I have begun to suffer from severe leg pain which has also prevented me from sleeping. The doctor prescribed sleeping pills to combine with my pain medicine.

       A while ago I was blessed with a fragment from the vestment of Saint John, Wonderworker of San Francisco. The pain in my legs had become excruciating and unbearable. I asked my wife Susanna to please place the holy vestment fragment on my legs and to pray to Saint John. The very moment that she placed the precious cloth on my legs the pain ceased and has not returned. As a matter of fact I have experienced great relief from my pain and it is now much more bearable. I am also able to sleep through the entire night which I have not been able to do for a very long time.

       I accept the pain that I still have as a great gift from God. He has given me the inestiminable privilege of suffering with Jesus. Saint John has gifted me with significant relief and, very importantly, patience and even a sense of humor about this entire experience.

       Many nights I used to cry out in pain. Frequently, in order to get out of bed, I would have to roll out of bed onto the floor and crawl to the bathroom. No one could help to lift me as the pain was to terrible. Now, thank God and His servant the Holy Hierarch Saint John, my pain is much more bearable and I sleep well. God be praised for His mercy to me, his unworthy servant. I want everyone to know that with Saint John there is no such word as "hopeless".

       Sincerely,

       Vladimir Whitehead
       Berryville, Arkansas

       In our congregation we have a relatively recent convert, an opera singer who lost her voice in a freak accident and credits the intercession of St John Maximovich with getting it back. (She visited the cathedral in San Francisco and I think met Metropolitan Philaret years ago, when this happened.) Finally she converted to Russian Orthodoxy to thank God and St John.

                                                                                                                                                                Reader Serge Beeler

       Dear Reverend Father,

       Father, bless!

       My name is Reader James Jenkins, and I attend the OCA parish of St. Theodore of Tarsus in Kansas City, Missouri. `

       I really enjoyed your site. You asked for our experiences with miracles by St. John. When I first began to look into Orthodoxy, it was 1987 and I was stationed at San Francisco. I had (and still have) a very deep devotion to Tsar-Martyr Nicholas II and his family from long before I had even heard of Holy Orthodoxy, and I wanted very much to see a Russian cathedral. The gold onion domes attracted me like a magnet.

       One of the first times I went there I was in the bookstore and asked if there was something they could give me to help me learn more about Orthodoxy. I was expecting the man to give me a book or a tract, but instead he directed me to go down and pray to Vladika John. I went down into the crypt, where I remember standing (I was a Mormon at the time) somewhat nervously, saying to myself "I'm not praying to any dead guy." Well, glory to God, as it turns out, I didn't pray to any "dead" guy, after all!! I forced myself to mumble some short kind of prayer, then quickly left.

       Fast forward to 1996, when I was living here in Independence, Missouri; I was explaining to a very dear Protestant friend, a lady who was like a mother to me, why I had just been baptized into the Holy Orthodox Church. This dearly beloved friend suffered from many chronic ailments, the most serious of which was her fierce attachment to her Protestant faith. I told her about St. John Maximovitch, and since I had some oil from his tomb in my icon corner, I asked her if she would let me anoint her with it. She consented, and when I opened the vial of oil, the entire room filled with an overpowering scent of roses. I anointed her making the Sign of the Cross on her forehead with the oil and praying to St. John. The scent of roses lingered in my apartment for 2-3 days.

       Skeptical me (God forgive me!): I called the place I had gotten the oil, and asked them if they added any rose scent to the oil! They said no. Not long thereafter, after reading a book I had loaned her about St. Seraphim of Sarov, she called me to say that only now, for the first time in her life, did she truly know what a real Man of God was--and how wretched a sinner she was. Shortly thereafter, she was received into the Orthodox Church.

       But it is not this that catches my attention. We were discussing the incident at my apartment about 6-12 months after her Chrismation, when Mary said to me: "you don't understand, Jim; I HATE roses. I HATE them. I can't stand the smell of them, and yet I LOVED that scent!!!" It was then that my skepticism vanished, and I accepted that a miracle had truly taken place. I am grateful to St. John and to the Tsar-Martyr whom he loved for bringing not only me, but my dearly-beloved friend into the Orthodox Church.

       I have waited far, far too long to tell this tale. Holy St. John Maximovitch and Tsar-Martyr Nicholas, please pray to God for us!!!!

       Glory to Jesus Christ!!! Please pray for me, a sinner.

       Kissing your right hand:
       Sinful Reader James [Jenkins]

       I am Roger (Seraphim) Thomas of Ashgrove, Mo. I attend an OCA church in Ashgrove. "Theotokos of Unexpected Joy Orthodox Mission." Fr. Moses Berry is our pastor.

       Last sunday , after the liturgy, my left eye was bothering me and had been for a couple of weeks, I had a sore on my eyelid which would not go away. It would throb from time to time, so I asked Fr. Moses to bless or annoint my eye with oil. He did and that very night it drained and was healed the next morning. I didn't know it until today, 3days after I was annointed, that it was the oil of St. John the Wonderworker that father used.

       Fr. Moses asked me to write you as I understand you are keeping tract of the miracles of St. John. I believe this one to be a healing from St. John. I gave glory to God the next morning when I realised my eye was healed, thanks to the intercession of St. John.

       Kissing your right hand,

       Seraphim

       When my mother was pregnant with me, she experienced a fairly substantial amount of bleeding. The doctors told my parents that there was a possibility that I would not make it. When my dad heard this, he immediately went down to the catacomb church below Holy Virgin Cathedral where Saint John Maximovitch was buried and prayed to him to intercede for my mother and I. The day that my dad prayed to Saint John, my mother's bleeding ceased and I was born, thanks to the intercessions of Saint John of Shanghai and San Francisco.

       I am now a novice at the Monastery of Saint John of Shanghai and San Francisco in Point Reyes Station, California. I owe my life to the intercession of Saint John to our Lord Jesus Christ. Glory be to God.

       A novice at the Monastery of St. John.....

       It was him, he had come. Somehow Sasha and I knew he would. The wrist injury was really nothing major. It was hardly life threatening and the doctors had evaluated the x-rays and the MRI and assured us it was simply the tendons refusing to calm down.

       The accident was silly as well. Sasha was working at a soup kitchen at the end of March and a pitcher had flipped back in her hand. It didn’t even really hurt then and only when she had typed up 4 papers and had spent several hours at her beloved piano a couple of days later did it manifest itself. She woke up with her wrist in so much pain she couldn’t write or play piano or flute. After a month of no relief, she went through physical therapy and even a cortisone shot but nothing was helping and she was still dutifully wearing the splint. She tried to play piano as much as she could but after a short session, she had to ice her wrist to reduce the pain. This was becoming an increasingly annoying problem.

       She was also very worried about an upcoming audition. She was ready to take the next step in her music and she had an audition at a local college. How could she perform for him? How could she demonstrate her abilities accurately enough for the professor to have some idea of where to recommend her? Music is her passion and this was weighing heavily. High School at a special magnet school is also looming in the fall. Life at 14 was offering several step-changes simultaneously. While there was nothing major in any of them, they were step-changes none the less. Her solace, her place of refuge was at the piano and she would play for hours when she had to think things through. That hadn’t been available for months.

       We have had the opportunity through the Pan-Orthodox Fellowship to work with the Orthodox parishes in the Atlanta area over the past year and all of us, including Sasha, have gotten to know many at the community of St. John the Wonderworker. St. John himself, however, has been loved by our family for years. I grew up in the Seattle area and my family has always been close to St. John. My mother took his icon with her to the hospital when she fell gravely ill at the end of her chemotherapy treatments 3 years ago. She still to this day does not pass our icon corner without reverencing the icons and especially the one of St. John. So it was with great joy that our extended family headed to St. John’s for their patronal feastday vespers.

       Afterwards, we all prayed at the little shrine they have for St. John. During my prayers, I reached out and touched his cassock and immediately felt such an intense peace and joy. Then it dawned on me. I slipped the splint off Sasha’s wrist and told her to put her wrist on the cassock. She felt the same intense peace and her eyes brimmed with tears.

       That very night, she awoke to find her room filled with a soft glowing light. It was bright enough that she could make out the color of her walls. And there, leaning over her was St. John Maximovich. He was holding her wrist in his hands and fervently praying. Although he didn’t look at her, she recognized him immediately. She felt such a peace and a sense that she was completely unencumbered by anything. She only looked at him and said “so you’ve come.” And she fell back to sleep.

       She was hesitant to say much the next day. Did it really happen? Was it just a dream? But dreams can be silly, disjointed things. This not only made sense but was intensely detailed. Time would tell, we decided.

       But the fact was that she awoke that morning pain free for the first time in 3 months. She played piano for hours that very day and again the next day. She did fine during the audition and in fact that turned out to be less of a big deal than she feared. She continues to be pain free.

       At a time when there were many transitions in her life, a 14 year old’s heart grew even closer to God through the miraculous intercession of one of His saints, St. John Maximovich. That was perhaps the most important step-change in her life. A blessed moment of healing for a wrist that touched her to the depths of her soul. And has touched the lives of all of us.

       We give thanks to God for this incredible intercession.

       St. John Maximovitch did it again on the fourth successive year in the life of the Maricaban Orthodox Catholic Community in Mulawin, Maricaban, Pasay City, Philippines:

      On July 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9, 2002, three typhoons passed by Luzon in the the Philippines which flooded most of Metro Manila and other provinces. On July 7, it was a Sunday and time to celebrate the Divine Liturgy. The faithful prayed for the intercession of St. John that we will be able to celebrate mass without the flood in the Church. Normally the church is flooded up to the waist. At 5 a.m. of July 7, the flood receeded. At 7 a.m. the faithful started cleaning. Cleaning was finished by 9:30 a.m. and Liturgy was celebrated at 10 a.m. At 12:10 p.m. Liturgy was finished and at 12:30 p.m. the church was flooded again up to July 8.

      As an act of thanksgiving to God for St. John, the community established a Foundation in St. John's memory. It is called the St. John Maximovitch Orthodox Foundation. Its purpose is to institutionalize St. John's holiness and to exemplify his good deeds especially his healing charism. Also, to establish him as the intercessors for the poor people of Maricaban who always experience miseries like poverty, deprivations and others especially during calamities in this part of the Philippines

       Sincerely,

       Rev. Fr. Joseph G. Borreros, CSC
       Primatial Vicar
       Catholic Apostolic Philippine Church
       Local Governance Unit
       PhilDHRRA National Secretariat
       59 Salvador Street, Loyola Heights
       1108 Quezon City
       Tel: (632)4266740
       Fax: (632)4260385

      The consecration of the St. John Maximovitch church was the culmination of ten years of fervent missionary activity on the part of its parishioners, as well as five years of physical labor building the church’s structure, executed entirely through the volunteer efforts of both parishioners and other supporters throughout the community. Final preparations for this joyous day occupied parishioners right up to Bishop Jovan’s arrival on Friday afternoon. Friday evening, the Bishop celebrated vespers with the parish community, after which he answered questions from his flock.

      However, the actual consecration did not take place until Saturday, the appointed day to celebrate the feast of the parish’s patron saint, Archbishop John Maximovitch of Shanghai and San Francisco. Visitors joined the members of the Eugene parish from Arizona, Nevada, California, and Washington. Nine priests and two deacons were present to concelebrate with the archbishop. Abbot Gerasim and four other monks from St. Herman’s Monastery in northern California came up to join their lay brothers and sisters, as well as Abbess Michaila from St. Paisius Women’s Monastery in Safford, Arizona. Joining them were over two hundred attendees who flowed out of the nave and into the narthex of the church as they experienced the ancient rite of consecration of a temple of God. The mass of smiling faces joined the clergy as they circled three times around the church in a procession that included a cross-bearer, holy banners depicting icons of our Lord and the Theotokos, a censor streaming incense into the Heavens to accompany the prayers of those present, and the splash of Holy Water, which Bishop Jovan sprinkled throughout the church building, blessing the structure in anticipation of the abundant grace which he was about to call down from Heaven upon St. John’s.

      Back inside the nave of the church, Bishop Jovan used a seven-foot long bamboo pole with a swab on the end to make the sign of the cross with Holy Chrism upon the four walls of the nave: the east wall first, then the west wall, followed by the south and north walls. St. John’s new marble and granite altar was then anointed with Holy Chrism, and the sign of the cross was traced along each of its four sides. Finally, to sanctify the altar for all time, relics of fourteenth-century Serbian saint, Great-martyr Tsar Lazar, were sealed inside the altar itself by the archbishop. 

     The consecration of the temple was followed by Divine Liturgy, in which all Orthodox Christians who had properly prepared themselves were invited to partake of the Body and Blood of our Risen Lord. The Divine energies of God buoyed those present; the countenance of all those present reflected joy, love, and gratitude. The Liturgy was followed by a reception for all guests. The day, which had begun overcast with slight precipitation, as if God was sending His blessing upon His spiritual garden at St. John’s, soon had become a beautiful sunny summer day. Visitors and parishioners feasted under tents outside, after which the archbishop, who will soon be returning to Serbia, said his goodbyes to not only the people of St. John Maximovitch, but also the people of St. Stephen’s in Portland, many of whom came down to share in the joy. Bishop Jovan honored Fr. David Lubliner, Fr. Michael Boyle, Fr. Deacon Stephen Dyer, and the board of St. John’s with an Episcopal Grammata of Recognition. Bishop Jovan also commended Dragan Petrovic and Dushan Lukovich of Portland, who have labored so much in helping to further the construction of a church there. Following the archbishop’s address, in which he reminded all present to go to church as much as possible, for “Nowhere else is it possible to meet with God and with His (and our) Saints, other than in the temple during our participation in the Holy Mysteries,” Fr. David thanked the many volunteers who labored to build a temple of God in Eugene. The children of St. John’s then performed a play celebrating the life of St. Sava, enlightener and first archbishop of the Serbs (+1235). This unique presentation of the life of the saint dearest to the Serbian people delighted all present.

     In this way the long journey for the Faithful of Eugene reached a satisfying conclusion. But such a conclusion is merely the beginning of another, even more challenging journey. However, the hope of Eternal communion with God awaits all those who undertake such a venture. And now the people of Eugene, Oregon have such luminaries as Great-martyr Lazar and Holy Hierarch Sava joining the blessed memory of Archbishop John Maximovitch to help guide the way. Holy Hierarch John of Shanghai and San Francisco, pray to God for us!

-Daniel Mackay 

       I remember well when three Orthodox Priests came to the hospital to perform the healing prayers carrying a thigh shield worn by St. John. I was in Kennestone Hospital in Georgia for 12 days, including 5 days in the ICU. I was admitted on Saturday, June 8, 2002. I had a reaction to Dilantin. The replacement for Dilantin was Tegretol, and I had a violent reaction to the Tegretol. My sodium level dropped to 109, and I was close to dying. One priest left me two small icons of St John the Wonderworker. I could not read, since my brain had (according to the doctors) "shut down." All I could do was pray. I kept the icons of St John in a book and I prayed. On June 17, 2002, a Monday, my phasia (disoriented speech) began to clear up. An MRI on Monday showed my brain infection was neither smaller nor larger, but my speech had cleared up. By Wednesday, the neurologist decided I could go home and continue the medication. I was released June 19th, Wednesday. Everything seemed so beautiful. By June 20th, I could began to read, although I could only focus about an hour or so. I continued to read with an icon of St John as a bookmark. It is so wonderful to be Orthodox and to have the saints as living icons--"Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the Cross. . ." (Heb. 12:1-2). I thank the Fathers for their prayers and for the prayers of the church, but mostly I thank St. John the Wonderworker for his intercession. The prayers have kept me and strengthened me. Please tell your parish that had I not had such prayers, I may not be here today. Glory to Jesus Christ.