This is an icon button of the patron saint of our monastery, St. John of San Francisco.

Size: 1 ¼"

Saint John Maximovitch, also known as Saint John of Shanghai and San Francisco, was a globally revered 20th-century Orthodox bishop, ascetic, and wonderworker. Born Michael Maximovitch in 1896 in Russia, he fled the Bolshevik revolution to Yugoslavia, where he was tonsured a monk and eventually consecrated a bishop in 1934. Assigned to Shanghai, he became famous for his profound love for the suffering, establishing an orphanage that saved hundreds of children and personally visiting the sick daily. He practiced extreme bodily asceticism, most notably refusing to sleep in a bed for over forty years, resting instead for just a few hours a night in a chair. Following the communist takeover of China, Archbishop John led thousands of Russian refugees to safety in the Philippines, even successfully lobbying the U.S. government to change its immigration laws so they could enter America. He spent his final years shepherding the flock in San Francisco, where he oversaw the completion of the Holy Virgin "Joy of All Who Sorrow" Cathedral. Renowned for his documented spiritual gifts of healing, clairvoyance, and prophecy, he reposed in 1966 and was officially glorified by the Russian Orthodox Church outside of Russia in 1994, leaving behind completely incorrupt relics that remain open for veneration today.

For more information on the life of Saint John, see the following books:

Man of God

Exodus: St John Maximovitch Leads His Flock out of Shanghai