Fool for Christ
Blessed John Samsonovich of Solvychegodsk
XVII век — †28 января 1669
Also known as: Иоанн Самсонович, Блаженный Иоанн Сольвычегодский
Blessed John Samsonovich, Fool-for-Christ of Solvychegodsk — a native of the Dvina region who settled in Solvychegodsk, where he labored year-round barefoot and scantily clothed, foretold the devastating fire of 1656; he frequently visited (but did not found) the Stroganovs' Solvychegodsk Presentation Monastery, where he was buried.
Blessed John Samsonovich came from the Dvina region and in his youth settled in Solvychegodsk. He chose the extreme ascetic path of foolishness for Christ: he went barefoot and scantily clothed year-round, refusing to accept alms.
He frequently visited the Solvychegodsk Presentation (Annunciation) Monastery, founded in 1565 by the Stroganov brothers — but he was NOT its founder, as the original stub erroneously claimed; he sometimes stayed overnight in its "kitchen cell." He became renowned for veiled prophecies, including foretelling the devastating Solvychegodsk fire of September 25, 1656, and the 1664 death of a grandson of the venerated Stroganov nun Maria.
Before his death he made confession and received communion from the monastery's abbot; he reposed on the night of January 28, 1669, and was buried on the 29th beside other local holy fools.
He was glorified as part of the Synaxis of Vologda Saints, established in 1841 (his name had already been mentioned in 1811 by Metropolitan Evgeny Bolkhovitinov). Separately, July 3/16 marks the collective commemoration of the Solvychegodsk holy fools buried at the Presentation Monastery — Foma, Mikhail, John, and Vasily.
IMPORTANT CORRECTION: category righteous→fool_for_christ; the original stub falsely credited him with founding the monastery — it was established that the monastery already existed a century before his ascetic labors, and the blessed one merely visited it often.