On January 2, 1909, turmoil reigned in Kronstadt: all train tickets there from St. Petersburg were sold out, wagons and sleighs were dismantled in Oranienbaum. The reason for the pandemonium was sad - Father John of Kronstadt died, one of the most "closed" and mysterious saints in the relatively recent history of Russia.
Along with the holy Apostle Peter, the holy noble Grand Duke Alexander Nevsky and Blessed Xenia, he is recognized as one of the patron saints of St. Petersburg. During his lifetime, John was popularly revered for his gift of healing, and the name of the miracle worker is strongly associated with the help of the poor and the cure of those suffering from alcoholism.
John Ilyich Sergiev (holy righteous John of Kronstadt) was born on October 19, 1829 in the family of a clerk in the remote Arkhangelsk village of Sura. Fearing that the frail baby would not live to see the morning, his parents immediately christened him. John grew up a sickly child and once even nearly died of smallpox.
In his autobiography, John of Kronstadt describes his father Ilya Mikhailovich Sergiev and his mother Fedora Vlasyevna as extremely pious people who raised him in a spirit of deep religiosity.
On the meager family savings, the ten-year-old John studied at the Parish School of Arkhangelsk, but, despite his diligence, he did not have a desire for study and was tormented at the thought that his parents were wasting their last pennies on him. Suddenly, an insight came to him - he began to understand the lessons and became one of the best students.
Having brilliantly graduated from the seminary in 1851, John received the opportunity to continue his education at the St. Petersburg Theological Academy. In the same year, his father died. To help his mother and sisters, the future pastor wanted to give up his studies and immediately go to work as a deacon or sexton, but his mother insisted that his son continue his education. Simultaneously with his studies, John got a job in the administration of the academy as a copyist of papers and sent all his monthly salary of ten rubles home.
The future priest had no close friends. Decades later, his former classmates barely remembered this strange young man who constantly spoke of humility. In the last year of his studies at the academy, he fell into an inexplicable depression and, as he later admitted himself, was able to get out of it only thanks to unceasing prayer.
Thanks to his official position, John had his own room, which was a great rarity for an ordinary student of the academy. Here he could retire for deep prayer and independent study. John not only read patristics and theology very thoughtfully, but also studied philosophy, history, Latin, literature, physics, mathematics, and foreign languages. At that time he developed an interest in patristic literature, especially in the works of St. John Chrysostom and Metropolitan Philaret of Moscow. He felt his true calling.
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Once, while still studying at the academy, John had a dream that he enters the apse of a large cathedral and exits through its southern gates, intended not for the laity, but for the clergy. It is in this cathedral, unknown to the young priest, that he will serve his whole life.
Booker Igor