Hierarch
Hierarch Saint John (Elijah), Archbishop of Novgorod
год рождения неизвестен — †1186
Saint John of Novgorod — the hierarch during whose tenure the "Sign" icon defended Novgorod from siege; hero of the legend of riding a tamed demon to Jerusalem.
Saint John (born and tonsured as Ilia/Elijah) was Archbishop of Novgorod, elevated to that rank in 1165 as the first Novgorod hierarch raised directly to archbishop.
During the 1170 siege of Novgorod by Suzdalian forces, he is credited with the miracle of the "Sign" (Znamenie) Icon of the Mother of God: struck by an enemy arrow, the icon turned toward the city and wept, terror fell upon the besiegers, and they fled — commemorated as the feast of the Sign of the Most Holy Theotokos. He is also the subject of the famous legend of riding a captured, trapped demon overnight to Jerusalem and back.
Before death he took the great schema, resuming the name John, and reposed peacefully on September 7, 1186. His relics were found incorrupt in 1439 in Novgorod's Holy Wisdom (St. Sophia) Cathedral, and he was glorified church-wide at the Council of 1547.