John of Kalyazin

Venerable John of Kalyazin (in the world Ivan Spiridonovich Shishkin) was a monk of the Trinity Monastery in Kalyazin. He was born in 1738 and reposed on 31 March 1764, at the age of twenty-⁠five. He is a locally venerated saint of the Russian Church. His commemoration is on 31 March.

He was the son of a townsman, Spiridon Andreevich Shishkin, and Daria Timofeevna. He grew up in a devout family. A great influence on him was the wife of his father's elder brother, Ustinia Mikhailovna, from a family of a priest or church reader, who taught him a pious life, told him about the great ascetics and read him spiritual books. From the age of twelve or thirteen he decided to lead a strictly ascetic life and asked his parents' consent, and they not only did not hinder him but blessed him.

In early spring he would put on a hair shirt, gird himself with heavy iron chains and set out to wander among the holy places on pilgrimage, and in late autumn he would return to his native town of Kalyazin, not to his parents' house but to a dugout, or cave, which he had dug himself in the hill behind the monastery. Near it was a well, which according to tradition the young John also dug, known as the "holy well". Already then pilgrims came to it for bodily and spiritual healing.

For the sake of the ascetic life he remained unmarried. He died young and was entered as dead in the register on 31 March 1764. He was buried in the grounds of the church of the Nativity of Christ, on the left side. Over the grave a stone monument was built, surrounded by a wooden fence, replaced later by an iron canopy, like a small chapel, with the monument inside and a cross above. Beside him were buried his relatives: his grandmother Irina, his uncle Peter Andreevich and his father Spiridon Andreevich.

John's hair shirt and iron chains were kept after his death in the church of the Nativity of Christ. Pilgrims from Kalyazin and Kashin asked for them to be placed on the sick, especially children, considering them wonder-⁠working and bringing healing. Judging by the hair shirt, the young John was taller than average. The chains weighed eleven and a half pounds and consisted of two flat four-⁠armed crosses joined by plates with hooks, and the plates were joined by rings. In all there were twenty-⁠four plates.

After his repose, two icons were found, according to tradition, in the cave where he had lived: of the Kazan and the Vladimir Mother of God. Today the church of the Nativity of Christ and the grave of the young John are covered by the waters of the Kalyazin reservoir.