Isbjørn Av Miklagard
By the pulse of the sea;
St. John of Shanghai and San Francisco in Belgrade
In 1921, during the Civil War in Russia, the future archbishop, together with his parents, his brothers, and his sister, was evacuated to Belgrade, where he and his brothers entered the University of Belgrade. One brother graduated in the technical faculty and became an engineer, the other graduated in law and served in the Yugoslav police. Michael (future monk John) himself graduated in 1925 in the faculty of theology. While he was a student he worked for his living by selling newspapers.
In 1924, Michael was ordained reader in the Russian church in Belgrade by Metropolitan Anthony, who continued to exert great influence over him; and Michael in his turn showed the utmost respect and devotion to his superior. In 1926 Metropolitan Anthony tonsured him a monk and ordained him hierodeacon in the Milkov Monastery, giving him the name John, after the future archbishop’s own distant relative, Saint John (Maximovitch) of Tobolsk. On November 21 of the same year Fr. John was ordained hieromonk.
The city of Bitol was in the diocese of Okhrida. At that time the ruling bishop of this diocese was Nicholas Velimirovich—a noted preacher, poet, writer, and inspirer of the popular religious movement. He, as much as Metropolitan Anthony, valued and loved the young Hieromonk John, and himself exerted a beneficial influence upon him. More than once he was heard to say, “If you wish to see a living saint, go to Bitol to Father John.”
From Life and Miracles of St. John (Maximovich) of Shanghai and San Francisco - One of the Greatest Saints of the 20th Century by Bishop Alexander (Mileant)
Proj. Golden Crescent - by Waqas Malik
“Great weight of the nothingness,
Like the yawning vacuum of silence,
Pulling you towards the shadows.”
WOMEN OF THE YEAR 2018 WINNERS | TV ACTRESS: Jenna Coleman
— photographed by Richard Phibbs for Harper’s Bazaar. With outstanding appearances in Doctor Who, Victoria and the haunting drama The Cry, Jenna Coleman has established herself as a leading lady of the small screen.