Early life Mikhail Maximovitch was born on June 4, 1896, in the village of
Adamovka of the
Izyumsky Uyezd of the
Kharkov Governorate of the
Russian Empire (in present-day eastern
Ukraine). Growing up, he collected
icons and church books, and indulged heavily in the reading of the
lives of saints. As a child, he converted his French caretaker from Catholicism to
Orthodox Christianity. Maximovitch attended
Poltava Military School from 1907 to 1914. Later, he attended and received a degree in law from
Kharkov Imperial University in 1918. He studied and attended church in
Kharkiv, where he was inspired by
Metropolitan Antony Khrapovitsky to deepen his religious understanding. He later recalled that the local monastery had become more important in his life than secular institutions.
Yugoslavia John's family moved to
Yugoslavia and brought him to
Belgrade in 1921. In 1925, Maximovitch graduated from
Belgrade University with a degree in
theology. To support his impoverished family, he sold newspapers. In 1926, he was
tonsured and ordained a
hierodeacon by Russian Metropolitan
Anthony (Khrapovitsky), who gave him the name of John after his distant ancestor,
John of Tobolsk. Later that same year, he was ordained to the priesthood by Russian Bishop Gabriel (Chepur) of
Chelyabinsk. After his ordination, John reportedly stopped sleeping in a bed and only ate once a day. For several years, he worked as an instructor and tutor in
Yugoslavia. He worked as a
religious teacher in the
Gymnasium of
Velika Kikinda between 1925 and 1927. In 1929, the
Holy Synod of the Serbian Orthodox Church appointed him as a teacher of the seminary in
Bitola under principal
Nikolaj Velimirović. His reputation grew as he began to visit hospitals, in which he cared for patients with prayer and communion.
Shanghai In 1934, he was ordained a bishop of the
Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia by Metropolitan Anthony and assigned to the
diocese of
Shanghai. In Shanghai, John found the uncompleted
Saint Nicholas' Church and an
Orthodox community deeply divided along ethnic lines. He became involved in local charitable institutions and later founded an orphanage and home for children of the destitute. He worked to restore church unity and establish ties with local Orthodox Serbs and Greeks. Miracles reportedly began to be attributed to his prayers. As a public figure, it was impossible for him to completely hide his
ascetic way of life. During the
Japanese occupation, he routinely ignored the curfew in pursuit of his pastoral work. Being the only Russian hierarch in China who refused to submit to the authority of the
Soviet-dominated
Russian Orthodox Church, under
Patriarch Alexy I of Moscow, he was elevated in 1946 to archbishop of China by the
Holy Synod of the
Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia. Following this, a bill, H.R. 4567, was signed by
President Truman on June 16, 1950, which included a provision to allow 4,000 Europeans in the
Far East to become refugees in the United States.
Western Europe In 1951, John was assigned to the
Archdiocese of Western Europe with his see first in
Paris, then in
Brussels. His work in compiling the lives of saints introduced numerous pre-
Schism Western saints to Orthodoxy, where they continue to be venerated.
San Francisco In 1962, John was reassigned by the Holy Synod of the
Russian Church Abroad to the see over
San Francisco. He found a divided community and an uncompleted cathedral. Although he completed the building of the
Holy Virgin Cathedral and brought some measure of tranquility to the community, he was slandered by political enemies, who filed a lawsuit against him for alleged mishandling of finances related to the construction of the cathedral. He was eventually
exonerated. Deeply reverent and interested in
John of Kronstadt, Maximovitch played an active role in the preparation of his canonization in 1964. ==Death and veneration==