John of Kormyany

Saint John of Kormyany (John Gashkevich, 1837-1917) the Righteous was a priest of the Russian Orthodox Church in Belarus, an archpriest and a spiritual father with the gift of discernment, loved by the people. The Synod of the Belarusian Church numbered him among the saints for local veneration in 1998, and the Council of Bishops of the Russian Church decided on 30 November 2017 on his glorification for the whole Church. He is commemorated on 18 May and on 9 September, the day of the finding of his relics.

Family and ministry

He was born on the night of 7 October 1837 (old style), in the village of Streshin, in the family of the priest John Ivanovich Gashkevich, ordained in 1836 by Archbishop Daniel for the church of the Intercession of the Mother of God (built in 1807) and confessor of the Rogachev deanery. His mother was called Maria Iosifova; he had brothers Lev and Nikolai, who studied at the Mogilev seminary, and a sister, Anna. From childhood he helped his father in church. He learned at the parish school, then went to the theological school in Mogilev with good results, and to the Mogilev theological seminary. After graduating, in 1859, he taught at the parish school in the village of Ogorodnya, in the Gomel region.

In 1862 he married Maria Filippovna Trusevich, daughter of the archpriest of the church at Ogorodnya, and in February 1862 he was ordained priest at the church of the Nativity of the Mother of God in the village of Sherstin. The family had children: sons Mikhail, Ignatiy, Simeon (the first and third became priests, Ignatiy a psalm-⁠reader), according to other sources also Platon and John, and daughters Tatiana, later a teacher at the parish school, and Anna. At his request, in 1876 he was moved to the church of Saint Nicholas at Ogorodnya. From 1893 he served for three years as spiritual investigator and for twelve years as a member of the council of the deanery.

The church at Korma

In Korma the first wooden church, dedicated to the Intercession of the Mother of God, had been built in 1760 with the parishioners' money at the entrance to the town. By 1900 it had fallen into ruin. Archpriest John, who was then confessor of the third Gomel district, advised the rector to spend three days in prayer and fasting, that the Lord might show the place for the new church. The parishioners and the rector, Father Peter, acted on the advice of the discerning elder: in the middle of the village, on a little hill, candles lit by themselves in the evening, and there it was decided to build the church. Archpriest John Gashkevich laid the foundation and consecrated the church in 1907, together with the local priest Nikolai Stradomsky.

In 1912 he was retired at his own request. In 1876 he was awarded the epigonation, in 1889 the skufia, in 1896 the kamilavka and a golden pectoral cross, in 1906 the Order of Saint Anne third class, in 1907 he was raised to archpriest, and in 1912 he received the Order of Saint Vladimir fourth class.

His death and relics

He died in the village of Ogorodnya, in September or October 1917, and was buried in the local church, on the right side of the altar. Shortly before his death Father John said: "They will jump on me, but the coffin will be strong." So it happened: at the end of the 1950s the church was burned, and the ruins, with the gravestones, were raked up and carted away. On the site of the church a football pitch and a dance floor were made.

In 1991 Father Stefan (Neshcheret), rector of the Orthodox parish of Korma, decided to look for the priest's burial place. Clearing the foundation of the altar part of the former church, he found the graves of two priests: the incorrupt relics of Archpriest John and of his son Mikhail, which he placed under the floor near the altar of the Intercession church. The finding of the honoured relics of Archpriest John took place on 9 September (new style) 1997, and they were placed for veneration in the church, to the left of the altar.

On 31 May 1998 the canonization of John of Kormyany as a righteous man, a locally venerated saint of the Belarusian Orthodox Church, took place, led by the patriarchal exarch of all Belarus, Metropolitan Filaret (Vakhromeev) of Minsk and Slutsk. On 8 August 2000 the Synod of the Belarusian Church decided to establish at the Intercession parish a convent in honour of the holy righteous John of Kormyany, called the Saint John convent. On 30 November 2017 the Council of Bishops of the Russian Church decided on his glorification in the whole Church.

His eldest son, Archpriest Mikhail Gashkevich, was a deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Empire of the second convocation for the Mogilev governorate, a member of the Kadet faction.