Captivity and Life in Bondage
John was conscripted as a soldier under Peter I and took part in the Russo-Turkish War, specifically the campaign of 1710–1711 along the Prut River. He was captured and ultimately handed over to an Ottoman cavalry officer (an Ağa) stationed in the village of Prokopion in Cappadocia, central Asia Minor, near Caesarea. There he was set to work as a groom caring for his master's horses.
His captors pressed him intensely to abandon Christianity, calling him a gavur (unbeliever) and subjecting him to torture, but he held firm to his faith. According to the accounts, he answered that he had been born a Christian and would die a Christian. Over time his steadfastness, humility, and diligence won the respect of his master. The Ağa is said to have offered him freedom and separate lodging, but John declined, regarding the stable where he slept on the hay as a place of prayer.
John combined his daily labor with a rigorous spiritual discipline: he fasted strictly, prayed and chanted the Psalms, attended night vigils, and treated his fellow slaves with compassion. He worshipped at the cave-church of the Great Martyr George in Prokopion, attending services on Saturdays and feast days and receiving Holy Communion.
Repose and the Discovery of His Relics
As his death approached John fell gravely ill. So that he could receive Holy Communion a final time without a priest being seen entering a Muslim household, a priest is said to have concealed the Eucharist inside a hollowed-out apple lined with beeswax. John reposed on 27 May 1730 (9 June by the New Style), at approximately forty years of age.
His relics were buried at the Church of the Great Martyr George in Prokopion. They were later found to be incorrupt, and the site became a center of veneration and reported miraculous healings, drawing both Christians and others who came to honor him.
Relics & Shrines
After the Asia Minor Disaster and the Greek-Turkish population exchange of the early 1920s, refugees carried John's relics from Prokopion to the island of Euboea (Evia) in Greece in 1924. According to the OCA account, portions of his relics had earlier been transferred to Mount Athos in 1881.
On Euboea the relics were initially housed in the church of Saints Constantine and Helen at New Prokopion. In 1951 they were moved to a new church dedicated to St. John the Russian, which remains a major pilgrimage destination. His body is small and clothed in a garment resembling that of an altar server, with a darkened face covered by a gold mask and one darkened hand left exposed.
His right hand is preserved at the Monastery of St. Panteleimon on Mount Athos, where he is widely venerated. With the blessing of Patriarch Alexy II, a wooden church dedicated to him was erected in the Kuntsevo district of Moscow in the early 2000s, and a larger stone church was consecrated there in 2016.
Miracles & Traditions
Traditional Accounts: The most famous tradition concerning John relates that while his master was away on the Hajj to Mecca, the master's wife held a dinner and John asked for a dish of pilaf (pilau), promising to send it to his master in Mecca. The Ağa is said to have returned reporting that a steaming plate of pilaf had appeared in his locked room in Mecca, engraved with his name and matching the dishes from his own household. After this, both Muslims and Christians are said to have begun calling John a saint (Wali).
His incorrupt and reportedly wonderworking relics have long been associated with miraculous healings, and the sources note that his veneration arose organically from these relics and miracles rather than from a recorded synodal act of canonization.
