John the Russian (d. 1843)

Elder John the Russian (d. 1843) was a monk of Russian origin, a disciple of the staretz Paisius Velichkovsky at Neamt Monastery in Moldavia and later a hermit on the Holy Mountain, where he reposed in 1843. He is remembered among the hesychast fathers of Athos of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

At Neamt, where nearly a thousand monks lived, he had learned from Paisius the staretz's chief work, the cleansing of the heart and the mind through the unceasing Jesus Prayer. It is said that he cut off one of his fingers so as not to be ordained and thus lose the stillness of the prayer he loved. For many years he lived in the Athonite wilderness, praying and working with his hands.

He himself describes his state: his heart was filled with an inexpressible joy and the prayer began to work by itself, so sweet that it would not let him sleep. He slept about an hour a day, sitting, and rose as if he had no need of sleep. He says an unspeakable love was born in him and that he could weep without ceasing, and at night he often rose to read the Psalms. He is venerated by the faithful, without synodal canonization.