John Domovsky

Archpriest John Alexeevich Domovsky (1844-1930) was a priest, confessor and wonderworker at Nakhichevan-⁠on-⁠Don, today Rostov-⁠on-⁠Don. He was numbered among the righteous, as a locally venerated saint in the Don Metropolia, by decision of the Holy Synod of the Russian Church of 24 July 2025. He is commemorated on 24 February (9 March), the day of his death, and on 27 August, the day of the transfer of his remains in 2020.

Priest and teacher

He was born on 30 March 1844 in the village of Pokrovskoye, Yekaterinoslav district, in a deacon's family. He graduated from the Yekaterinoslav seminary in 1865, married Anna, with whom he had many children, and was ordained priest in 1866. He was appointed parish priest at the village of Vasilievka, Slavyanoserbsk district (today within Alchevsk, Luhansk region), then was moved to the cathedral of Yekaterinoslav, where he organised the church choir. He was a member of the building committee of the dormitory and hospital of the theological school (1875), of the censorship section (1875-1889), and a teacher of religion at the city school (1882). The diocesan gazette of 1882-1898 mentions his works of mercy many times. From 1883 he was entrusted with the hearing and choosing of readers and singers of the diocese, and from 1886 he was keeper of the keys of the cathedral. He then lived at Mariupol. From 1896 he was at Rostov-⁠on-⁠Don; on 15 September 1896 he was moved temporarily to the Saint Sophia church at Nakhichevan, and two and a half months later was appointed rector of the newly built church of Saint Alexander Nevsky. He was raised to archpriest on 13 June 1899. He received the Order of Saint Anne (1910) and the Order of Saint Vladimir (1914).

The elder of Rostov

In 1916 he left the post of rector and retired, intending to spend his last years in a monastery; until 1918 he still taught religion at the Nakhichevan gymnasium. In the years of persecution after the revolution and of the Renovationist schism he was for the clergy and the people "the rule of faith." He was the confessor of Bishop Zacharias (Lobov) of Aksai. In 1923, at Rostov, seven churches were closed and in the others Renovationists served. Bishop Arseny, then in prison, sent his disciple to Father John to tell him that he could not act as he did, because the Renovationists were not Orthodox. Hearing this, Father John wept and answered: "Tell the Master that I did not know everything, I want to die Orthodox." The faithful then gathered in his house, where on Sundays and feast days the services were celebrated, with a sermon and then with conversations with each person. The crowd at the priest's house drew the attention of the Cheka, who took him for interrogation. It is told that he said to the investigator that he was going nowhere, but that the investigator would do well to go home; the investigator found at home a curtain burning beside the cradle where his child slept, and released him.

Repose and veneration

He passed to the Lord on 9 March 1930 and was buried in the crypt of the chapel of Saint Alexander Nevsky at the Sophia cemetery, then, after the closing of the chapel, moved to the Armenian cemetery in Rostov. When the coffin was put on the cart it cracked and the incorrupt hands and feet could be seen, but no one dared to open it. Metropolitan Benjamin Fedchenkov devoted to him a chapter, "The Saint of Rostov," in his "Notes of a Bishop," with the story of the deeds and miracles of his life and after death. His remains were moved in 2020, on 27 August.