John Laba

Saint John (in the world Ivan Ivanovich Laba or Loba, 1863-1937), venerable martyr, was a hieromonk and schemamonk, formerly on Mount Athos in the New Thebaid skete of the Russian monastery of Saint Panteleimon, and an exile in Central Asia. He was shot on 4 September 1937 in the Fox Gully near Chimkent (today Shymkent, Kazakhstan). He was glorified by the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church on 13 August 2000, among the New Martyrs and Confessors, with his baptismal name, John. He is commemorated in the synaxis of the New Martyrs (7 February by the new calendar, or the nearby Sunday, by the rule) and in the synaxis of the saints of Vinnytsia, on 14 September by the new calendar.

Youth and Athos

He was born on 3 July 1863 in the village of Serebria in the Gaisin district, Podolia province (now Bershad district, Vinnytsia region, Ukraine). He entered the hermit skete of the New Thebaid of the Russian monastery of Saint Panteleimon on Athos. On 20 March 1896 he was tonsured a rasophore with the name Philip, and on 4 February 1898 he was tonsured into the mantle with the name Flavian, in the same skete. On 16 June 1901 Father Flavian was ordained hierodeacon. He did his obedience first in the skete refectory, then in the skete hospital, caring for sick monks. On 25 January 1910 he was ordained hieromonk and after ordination headed the skete library. In May 1912 the monk Irenaeus (Tsurikov) made him confessor of the Thebaid skete.

The Name-⁠glorifier movement

He took part in the Name-⁠glorifier movement (imiaslavie). On 2 December 1912 he was present at the gathering of the brothers of the Thebaid, at which the "Synodal Reflection on the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ" in the spirit of imiaslavie was adopted. According to the testimony of Archbishop Nikon (Rozhdestvensky) of Vologda, in June 1913 John came to him several times, "now repenting, now again denying Orthodox teaching", and only after a conversation with the teacher S. V. Troitsky of the Alexander Nevsky church school, and after long wavering, did he renounce imiaslavie.

On 17 July 1913, for the Name-⁠glorifier teaching, Father Flavian and Father Irenaeus (Tsurikov), with hundreds of other monks adherents of this teaching, were sent back to Russia on the steamer "Chikhachev". He entered the Pokrov monastery in Moscow, where he was tonsured into the schema with the name John. He signed the complaint that the Athonite monks gave for consideration by the Local Council of the Russian Church, drawn up on 27 October 1917 in addition to the petition of 15 October 1917, in which the Name-⁠glorifiers asked that "the Athonite case" be examined and that the church excommunication be lifted from them. In 1919-1920 he lived in solitude in the environs of the hamlet of Solyony (today Temryuk district, Krasnodar region). In 1924 he lived in the same places with the Athonite monk Hilarion (Tsurikov), with whom he served.

Arrests and martyrdom

On 29 June 1924 both were arrested on the charge that they "had gone against Soviet power and held to the old". A special conference of the OGPU sentenced Hieromonk John to three years of exile in the Narym region. He served the sentence in the village of Bolshoi Podyelnik, Tomsk province. At the end of the term he settled with Fr. Hilarion at an apiary in the mountains near Frunze (now Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan). On 2 February 1930 they were arrested again, on the charge of "anti-⁠Soviet activity". On 9 June a special conference of the OGPU Collegium of Central Asia sentenced Hieromonk John to three years of exile in Kzyl-⁠Orda (today Kyzylorda, Kazakhstan). He served the detention at Turtkul, in the Karakalpak ASSR. Released from the camp in 1935, he settled at Aulie-⁠Ata (in 1936-1938 Mirzoyan, today Taraz, Kazakhstan), where Fr. Hilarion lived after exile. They served in secret and made monastic tonsures; the local people respected them, and came to them for the service and for counsel.

After serving the Liturgy at Pentecost (20 June 1937), they said: "The last time we have served with you. Soon they will arrest us and shoot us". Their hostess, who said, "Fr. Hilarion, we will hide you or take you somewhere", received the answer: "No, there is no need. We want to receive the crowns of martyrdom".

On 24 June 1937 the strugglers were arrested again on the charge of "defeatist agitation" and "participation in a counter-⁠revolutionary organization". Fr. John, as "head of a secret monastery", was imprisoned at Mirzoyan. He went through, together with Fr. Hilarion, the group case of Archbishop Alexis (Orlov) of Omsk. He did not plead guilty. On 23 August 1937 the special troika of the UNKVD of the South Kazakhstan region issued, in case no. 723 with Metropolitan Cyril (Smirnov), Metropolitan Joseph (Petrovykh), Archbishop Alexis (Orlov) and others, an indictment in which, besides the standard charges of anti-⁠Soviet activity, it was said: "Tsurikov Hilarion and Laba Ivan, heads of the secret monastery in Mirzoyan, were under the direction of Kobranov and Cyril Smirnov. They conducted counter-⁠revolutionary agitation about the coming fall of Soviet power and restoration of the bourgeois order, and made secret monastic tonsures". He was shot on 4 September 1937 in the Fox Gully near Chimkent and buried in an unknown grave.

Rehabilitation and glorification

On 5 July 1958 he was rehabilitated by the presidium of the South Kazakhstan regional court, for the repressions of 1937. He was numbered among the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia by decision of the Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church of 13 August 2000, on behalf of the Chimkent diocese. On 1 April 2015, with the blessing of the Holy Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church headed by Metropolitan Onuphry of Kiev, the commemoration of the Synaxis of the Saints of the Vinnytsia land was established; among its fifteen strugglers connected with this region was included the venerable martyr John (Laba), presbyter (+ 1937). The day of the synaxis is 14 September by the new calendar, the beginning of the indiction.