John of Merv

Holy Martyr John of Merv suffered in the fourth century, in the city of Merv, together with many other martyrs, at the hands of the Persians who were making war on Central Asia. His name was not preserved in church sources but was found in Muslim historical chronicles. Thanks to the researches of Metropolitan Vladimir (Ikim) and to a request addressed to the Commission for Canonization, the saint's name was entered into the Orthodox calendar.

Metropolitan Vladimir of Tashkent and Central Asia said of the holy martyr: "His name was not written in the Church. I first met this name in Muslim historian writers. I studied the question long, then applied to the Commission for the Canonization of Saints in Moscow, that this saint be included in the Orthodox calendar. And now the Church honours the memory of John of Merv."

The Church commemorates him on 27 July and on 8 September, in the Synaxis of the Saints of the Metropolitan District of Central Asia, in the new style.