John of Ustyug

Holy Righteous John of Ustyug, called before Buga or Bagu, was a Tatar by birth and a pagan, a baskak sent by Batu to Great Ustyug to collect the tribute for the khan's treasury. Greedy and bold, he oppressed the inhabitants with levies and tormented them. One day he saw Maria, daughter of an honourable citizen, took her by force as a concubine, paying no heed to her tears and to the pleas and gifts of her parents. The people of Ustyug, who until then had borne his plundering, could bear no more. The people were stirred and began to say that the baskak must be killed, that at Rostov, Suzdal and Vladimir (it was the year 1262) the baskaks had been killed and that the grand prince Alexander himself wished it. To escape the danger, Buga, on Maria's advice, resolved to receive Baptism and to enter with her into Christian marriage, and so he calmed the people. At Holy Baptism he received the name John, after the Holy Martyr John the Warrior.

The Christian

Not the superiority of Christianity over paganism, but fear of death alone moved the baskak to receive Baptism. But his wife, raised in Christian piety, by her counsels and exhortations and above all by the example of her pure life soon touched his heart and made him love the faith he had received. He listened with tenderness to the stories of the woman he loved and, the better he came to know the dogmas and requirements of Orthodoxy, the more his heart clung to it. Soon he became an exemplary Christian and won the love and respect of the citizens.

The church on the hill

One day John went out hunting with a falcon. Tired, he dismounted, lay down to rest and fell asleep. In a dream a wonderful and majestic man appeared to him and said: "On this place build a church in my name." John did not know who was speaking to him and did not dare to ask, and the man added: "Build the church of the Nativity of John the Forerunner." Returning home in haste, John told his wife the dream and asked her who John the Forerunner was. Maria explained, showing him the image on an icon, and urged him to hasten to fulfil what had been commanded in the dream. In a short time the church of the Nativity of John the Forerunner was built, and the hill, which was called Falcon Hill, began to be called John's. The pious couple adorned the church richly and supplied it with all that was needed for the services.

In Ustyug at that time there struggled Venerable Cyprian, head and founder of the monastery of the Archangel at Ustyug. John loved and honoured him, marvelled at his labours and patience and was moved by the stories of his struggles, for he had heard nothing like them in his homeland. An even more beneficial influence on the couple came from another chosen one of God, Venerable Procopius, born and raised in Christianity but outside Orthodoxy, who, like Buga, had received the holy faith at mature age and who in Ustyug for many years bore the voluntary labour of foolishness for Christ. He often came into the house of John and Maria and, laying aside the foolishness for a time, spoke with them from the heart, strengthening them in piety and taking comfort in their faith and humility.

Falling asleep

The couple John and Maria, leading a temperate and pure life, from strength to strength in the spiritual life, won the love and respect of all and left behind a good memory, receiving already in life from their contemporaries the name of righteous. They fell asleep in old age, as they are painted on the icons, and were buried at the city church of the Ascension. Later, when a new church was built, the place of their grave came inside the building, a shrine was made over the tomb and a commemoration was kept for them with a specially composed service. After many rebuildings of the church, the only mark of their burial place was their image, standing in a niche under the window, on the outer face of the wall. In the old handwritten calendars the righteous John and Maria are called the founders of ancient Ustyug.

The Church commemorates him on 11 July, on a movable day, in the Synaxis of the Saints of Vologda, together with his wife, the Righteous Maria.