Blessed John, the Wonderworker: A Preliminary Account of the Life and Miracles of Archbishop John Maximovitch

"Blessed John" is so far as I know the only biography of St. John (Maximovitch) of San Francisco. It is the story of a man who from his youngest years wanted to be a monk, but entered monastic life only after he followed his parents' desire that he finish law school. He did, earning a doctorate in law and later one in theology. He was made Bishop of Shanghai in 1933. During his time in China, he saved hundreds of orphans, many of them Chinese, housing them in St. Tikhon's Orphanage, which he founded. Many of those orphans are now elderly but have managed to make a life for themselves, some even becoming professors. He also ministered to his flock during the dark years of World War Two, eventually managing to bring most of his flock to a DP camp in the Philippines and later on, to the United States. Later, he served in Paris and in 1962, he was assigned to the Archdiocese of San Francisco to heal the rift between warring factions so that the Cathedral where his relics are now enshrined could be finished. For his trouble, he was hauled into court but he overcame this obstacle when he was acquitted and the church was finished. 28 years after his repose in 1966, he was canonised by the Russian Church Outside Russia and his relics in San Francisco's Joy of All Who Sorrow Cathedral continue to draw pilgrims. The second part of the book is dedicated to miracles that his intercession has wrought. Many of them are quite interesting. If anyone loves stories of faith and compassion, "Blessed John" is for you. Blessed is God in His saints!

This examination of the life and miracles of St. John Maximotvich is heartening reading not only for Orthodox Christians, not only for Californians who are blessed to have his relics, not only for North Americans who, unlike other Orthodox Churches in their "western captivity", have been blessed with their own saints, but for anyone who has a compassionate heart. This well written work is the clearest reading of the life of this remarkable man who had the gift of doing "ordinary things in an extraordinary way." Fr. Seraphim's account is neither sentimental nor disengaged, and the best I have read about this saint's life.