St John of Kronstadt 1829 – 1908
Feastday not known
Born 1829
Died 1908
Father
John Sergiev of Kronstadt is one of the best-known modern Russian saints.
Although intimately concerned with the life and behaviour of his immediate
flock he was a famous healer, political commentator and philanthropist all of
which he achieved in under a decade. He wrote several works during his day to
day work of charity, prayer and ascetism like My Life in Christ and The
Homilies on the Beatitudes. A powerful preacher and visionary he prophesied
the bloody reign of Communist Russia
“Russia,
if you fall away from your faith, as many of the intellectual class have
already fallen away, you will no longer be Russia, or Holy Russia. And if there will be no repentance in the
Russian people - then the end of the world is near. God will take your pious Tsar and will send a whip in the person
of impious, cruel, self-appointed rulers, who will inundate the whole earth
with blood and tears….” 1
1. Sermon delivered in 1904 as quoted by Father
John of Kronstadt, 50th Anniversary Book (Utica NY 1958) p 164