Righteous
Righteous John the Russian
ок. 1690 — 1730
Also known as: Иоанн Русский, исповедник, Иван Русский, Иоанн Русский Прокопийский
A Russian soldier of Peter the Great's army captured by the Turks during the Pruth campaign of 1711. Enslaved in Cappadocia, he refused to renounce Christianity; he died in 1730 and his incorrupt relics now rest on the Greek island of Euboea.
Righteous John the Russian was born around 1690 in Little Russia (Ukraine) and served as a private in the army of Peter the Great. During the Pruth campaign of 1711 he was taken prisoner and sold as a slave to a Turkish cavalry commander (aga) living in Prokopion in Cappadocia (modern Ürgüp, Turkey).
Beatings and humiliations failed to make him accept Islam. He tended the livestock and lived in the stable, obeying his master in everything except matters of faith. He fasted strictly, gave his food to the poor, prayed at night and received Communion on Saturdays in the cave church of St George. When the aga and his wife came to trust him and offered him better quarters, he declined. Tradition tells that while the aga was on pilgrimage to Mecca, John by his prayer sent him a dish of pilaf that the master found, still hot, in his locked room.
Before his death John asked for Communion; the priest, afraid to enter the aga's house, brought the Holy Gifts hidden in an apple. John died on 27 May 1730. Some three and a half years later his body was found incorrupt and placed in the church of St George, where many healings were reported. In 1924, during the Greek-Turkish population exchange, the Christians of Prokopion took the relics to Euboea, where since 1951 they rest in the church of St John the Russian at Nea Prokopi. His feast is 27 May (9 June, new style).