John of Sviatohirsk

Saint John the Recluse of Sviatohirsk (in the world Ivan Kryukov, 1795-1867) the venerable was a hieroschemamonk and recluse in the chalk caves of the Sviatohirsk monastery in Ukraine. He was born at Kursk on 20 September 1795 and died in the evening of 11 August 1867 (24 August in the new style). He was numbered among the locally venerated saints of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church on 24 August 1995. He is commemorated on 11 August (24 August in the new style).

The craftsman and husband

His parents were not wealthy townspeople, the Kryukovs. At baptism he received the name John. In 1804 he was sent to learn from a master of stove tiles, which were highly prized at that time. He studied seven years with him, then moved to another master, with whom he worked two years. In 1813 he took work as a clerk to a cattle dealer, then to another dealer; at that time, at his parents' insistence, he married. He loved monasticism from childhood, but his wish was fulfilled only after the hard trials of childhood and marriage, to which his mother had forced him against his will. Soon he met a contractor, a master of tiled stoves, who proposed that he return to his old trade. He worked eight years for him, then opened his own factory of tiled stoves and worked nine years more. In this time he was widowed and his father died. Settling his mother with his sisters, he went, with her blessing, to a monastery.

The monk

On 26 August 1833, at thirty-⁠eight, he entered the Glinsk Hermitage, under the elder-⁠abbot Philaret. First he was put in the guest house, after a year and a half they made him stove-⁠maker, and after four years he was moved to the refectory. On 22 June 1840 he was tonsured into the mantle with the name Ioannicius, in honour of the venerable Ioannicius the Great. On 20 April 1844 he was moved to the restored Sviatohirsk monastery and appointed its steward. On 15 August 1849 he was ordained hierodeacon by Saint Innocent (Borisov), and on 26 August 1849 hieromonk by Saint Philaret (Gumilevsky) and appointed confessor of the pilgrims who came. He worked much for the ordering of Sviatohirsk. Working on the clearing of the caves, he grew fond of one of the chalk cells, in which he shut himself in 1850, with the abbot's blessing. On 29 August 1852 he was tonsured into the great schema by Saint Philaret with the name John, in honour of Saint John the Forerunner.

Seclusion

In this work the ascetic lived seventeen years in seclusion (1850-1867). In this time he lived and prayed in one of the cells of the chalk cave. He prayed constantly; every day he made 700 full prostrations, 100 bows to the waist, 5000 Jesus Prayers and 1000 prayers to the Mother of God, wore iron chains and a hair shirt, and slept in a coffin that stood in his cell, which was only a little larger than a coffin, about 7 square metres. For the first five years the cell was not heated in winter, until John added a stove, which made the cell smaller still. In the evening of 11 August 1867 the recluse died. Already in his lifetime the fame of the recluse of Sviatohirsk had gone through the whole Russian Empire.

After his death

After his death, thousands of pilgrims received healings at his grave and in the cell where he lived. Miracles began to occur at his grave: many received healing of incurable diseases. Even now pilgrims go without fail to the saint's grave to take sand from it for treating joints, and women hang headscarves on the cross so that, as the pilgrims say, they may be "soaked" with holiness. On 13-14 November 1995 the canonization commission of the Holy Synod of the Russian Church found no obstacle to Patriarch Alexy II blessing the canonization of the hieroschemamonk John (Kryukov) within the bounds of the diocese of Gorlovka and Sloviansk. The saint's head is kept in the Dormition cathedral of the monastery, where every Thursday before the liturgy a prayer service is served beside the saint's reliquary. Each year on the day of his commemoration, 24 August, a procession is held around the monastery with his relics, at which up to ten thousand pilgrims gather.